


Ohana

by Littlegreenbirdy



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Sexual Assault, Biting used as Torture, Child Abandonment, Dirty Talk, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, Homicide, Homosexual slurs, I know it doesn’t sound like it but this is mostly fluff, It’s the seventies people., I’m just tagging anything potentially triggering, I’m not a nurse or a doctor so I hope I haven’t wrote anything too stupid, M/M, Oral Sex, Prescription Drug Abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Serial Killer, Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll, Sexism, Slow Burn, Surgery, Torture, Vietnam War, Vomiting, and there some fluff in there I swear on my nan’s grave, death by strangulation, road trip down Route 66, slight Dom/Sub vibe, water boarding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-01-14 23:55:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21244100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlegreenbirdy/pseuds/Littlegreenbirdy
Summary: This is three intertwined love stories. One for Flip Zimmermann and Rey, on a road trip though the desert.One for Finn and Rose caught up in the turmoils of the last days of the Vietnam war.And one for Kaydel Connix and Poe Dameron, In the heady days of Disco and cocaine in Hawaii.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> There’s going to be some dark stuff happening here, I’m exploring themes of war, murder, drugs and infidelity in the seventies. 
> 
> I can’t stress that enough some of the stuff these characters do and say is going to be offensive to a more enlightened millennial audience. 
> 
> It’s not going to be real dark, mostly fluff, great music and banter which I hope you the reader will enjoy but I’d be remiss to not warn you.

### 

### Good Times Bad times - Led Zeppelin, ||| 

25th May 1972, Jakku California.

Some parts of Arizona and California are breathtakingly beautiful. Some parts are not. 

Rey Johnson lived in the part that was definitely not beautiful; for as long as she could remember, her home had been a town called Jakku, which sat on the Arizona/California border like a blister on the back of a heel. 

The undulating grey ribbon of Route 66 ran straight past the front door of ‘Uncle Plutt’s Garage and Spare Parts’, though it would have been more accurate if the neon sign out front had actually read ‘Plutt’s Scrap Heap’. 

Simon Plutt was a car hoarder: antiqued Studebakers, Oldsmobiles, even a model T Ford sat rusting in the backyard, their once bright paint now faded to a dull matte by the unrelenting sun and unceasing wind. This was a place ruled by the sky; wispy clouds stretched boundlessly across the endless blue and, as Rey fidgeted uncomfortably in the fierce heat, she hoped a change of weather was on its way.

It was afternoon, probably about five o’clock, as she sat in the shaded front seat of a wrecked Ford Falcon. She’d carefully checked it for rattlesnakes before enjoying a rare moment of relaxation; the car battery was still working so she had the radio on low, listening to Loretta Lynn singing ‘Blue Kentucky girl’.

Sometimes, when it rained, she was able to pick up a station in Phoenix - a rare, forbidden little treasure, since Plutt had banned any rock music in earshot. Why her roadie parents had chosen to leave her with him was an unanswered question. Thinking of them, she carefully unfolded their letter, refolded so many times in the weeks since she’d received it that the paper had torn at the creases and she’d had to repair it with sticky tape.

3/19/1972 

Darling Rey

We hope you have been behaving and working hard for Mr Plutt. He is a good man and you should be very grateful he was willing to take you in. Do what he says and don’t be a newsense.

We have been touring with the Beatles in Europe and Australa we’re hoping to be back in the states with enough money saved to buy a house soon, we will come and get you then. Another year at the most, so be patent darling and we’ll all be together again as a real family.

Love Mom and Dad 

She didn’t even know why she read it any more – she knew it off by heart; maybe it was just the comfort of touching something that her mother’s hand had once skimmed. 

Gazing out the grimy windshield at the arid landscape, she wondered when they would come back for her... Maybe she should just try her luck hitch-hiking away from here, and go looking for them. Her heart sank as she thought of the meagre funds she’d saved - mostly a handful of tips and spare change she’d found on the floors and in ashtrays of derelict cars. Even worse, she’d spent some of her hard-earned money on material for a dress, of all things. She’d wanted to wear something pretty when her parents returned and, with the aid of a book borrowed from the library, she’d started putting one together. In truth, she was better at fixing the damn sewing machine when it broke down than actually using it to make anything, but she’d muddled through, and the finished dress was now hanging on the back of her bedroom door. As yet unworn. 

The day was shifting into late afternoon, bathing everything in a more forgiving golden light, when the silence was broken by the sound of a car slowing to stop in front of the garage. Climbing out of the falcon, Rey had already reached the back porch by the time Plutt bellowed at her from his recliner. “Rey! Customer! And get me another beer,” he snapped as she strode straight past him, staying well out of his reach. Jerking the fridge door open and looking for the beer, her eyes narrowed as she noticed he’d put the cans right at the back of the lowest shelf again, forcing her to bend over. 

Turning to see the expression on his bloated face, her skin crawled at the way his small piggy eyes lingered on her, but she somehow resisted the urge to throw the can at his head. He’d insisted that she wore a ‘uniform’ this summer, with shorts so small they bared the entirety of her thighs. 

Placing the beer on the coffee table next to his overflowing ashtray, just out of his range, she hurried to the front of the shop while he grumbled after her, too low for the customer to hear: “Stuck-up bitch! Maybe I should fuck some gratitude into you.” 

Rey knew it was an empty threat - Plutt rarely left his chair after the loss of his foot, and certainly couldn’t climb the narrow staircase to the apartment above. His diabetes complications had been a fortunate stroke of luck for Rey, happening roughly around the time he’d started to show an interest in her developing body, but she’d still installed heavy drop bolts on her bedroom door just in case. 

She stepped into the store front to see tall man waiting at the counter, his broad shoulders outlined by the late afternoon sun.

“Hey,” he said. “I was looking for a replacement headlight for 69’ Plymouth Satellite? A truck threw a rock up and smashed mine to pieces.” 

Rey’s chest suddenly felt warm and tight as the stranger spoke; his voice was unusually deep, with a purring quality. Her first impression was of his hair, tousled and black as a crow’s wing, just long enough to touch the red collar of his ringer T-shirt. Rey was struck mute at the sight of his face, a wide, full-lipped mouth smiled at her, and the movement caused his short goatee beard to shift slightly. 

“Yes,” she said, finding her voice. “You’re in luck. I have one in stock.” Her tone sounded a little huskier than normal.

Moving the step ladder, she climbed up and quickly located the part, surreptitiously brushing off the layer of fine dust that seemed to coat everything here.

“Here it is,” she announced, glancing back at the stranger, who was openly staring at her legs with a very appreciative expression and, realising he’d been caught, hastily turned his head to the side and cleared his throat awkwardly. Well, at least he had the good grace to look embarrassed, Rey mused as she climbed back down the ladder, dusty little box in hand. 

“Could I borrow some tools to install it?” the man asked, quickly recovering from his shame. “Or is the mechanic in?”

“That would be me,” she smiled. “Just drive around to the garage door. Shouldn’t take too long.”

“You’re going to do it?” he asked, voice rising in disbelief. His straight black eyebrows drew upwards as he made an amused little chuffing sound. Rey was used to such displays from men – frankly, his reaction was downright mild compared to some. Lord knew she’d seen worse.

“I’ll get these, too,” he said.

He had placed a packet of potato chips and two Cokes on the counter, and Rey pressed her lips together as she nodded in understanding - two cokes meant he must have someone waiting in the car. Battling a prickle of disappointment, she dared herself to look into his eyes, deep-set and a rich brown like good earth, the kind you can plant just about anything and it would grow.

When the corner of his mouth pulled up in little grin, Rey realised she’d been caught staring, again. A fiery sensation flooded her chest and neck as she bashfully turned from his scrutiny.

“I might get you fill up the tank with gas, too, please... Can I ask, is your name really ‘Ray’?” he asked, indicating her shirt where ‘Ray’ was stitched in curly red font just above her right breast. 

“Rey is my name, but it’s spelled with an ‘E’ not an ‘A’,” she admitted. “The embroidery company thought it was a typo,” she told him, rubbing her hands on the back of her shorts and wanting to drag them lower to cover her legs. 

“Rey,” he said, as though he were seeing how it tasted in this mouth. “Phillip,” he introduced, “but no one calls me that. No one. It’s ‘Flip’,” he said gravely, holding out his hand for her to shake but hesitating when an audible snap echoed in the quiet room. Rey recoiled at the sudden sting. “Sorry, static electricity,” he said solemnly, shaking his hand out before offering it again. 

The fine hairs on her arms stood up as his warm, slightly calloused hand engulfed hers entirely. A pulse travelled up her arm, spreading through her chest before settling low and hot in her belly. 

“I’d better get a move on, you want to get going before it gets dark out,” she said sheepishly, watching as he used the bottle opener on the side of the chest fridge to pop the lids off the drinks. He casually passed one to Rey. 

“It’s hot out,” he said by way of explanation, shrugging those broad shoulders in response to her questioning look. 

No customer had ever bought her a drink before – they seemed to assume she had carte blanche to help herself to the refreshments. As if Plutt was ever that generous.

“Thank you. That’s really nice of you,” she stammered gratefully. “Just bring your car around and I’ll fill it up.” 

“You got it!” he said, smiling as he backed out the door. Rey found herself thinking that he had a nice smile, almost boyish, though he looked to be in his late twenties, maybe even thirty. Almost twice her age and, she reminded herself, just passing through. Admonishing herself for getting all mooney just because a guy with pretty eyes bought her a drink, she raised the bottle to her lips and took a large gulp; the coke was icy cold, soothing the hard knot that had been building in her throat. 

Flip was already steering his car in front of the fuel bowser when she stepped outside, quickly shading her eyes from the blinding late afternoon sun. The throaty rumble of a V8 engine with an open exhaust filled the dusty air as she placed the coke on top of the bowser and began filling the car’s fuel tank. Flip started to wash the windshield, biting his bottom lip as he flicked the water off the squeegee. 

Rey hadn’t failed to notice the way his eyes lingered on her body every now and then, but his roaming gaze also sought her eyes. His observations certainly didn’t make her feel like her spine wanted to crawl out her throat, like Plutt’s did. 

“So where are you headed?” she asked conversationally.

“Back to Colorado,” he replied. “My Mom died two months ago and I’ve been packing up her house in Santa Barbara.” He dropped his head slightly and dark waves of hair covered his eyes briefly; sniffing, he brushed the errant strands from his face. 

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely.

He shrugged. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “She wasn’t ever happy without my dad, I think she just wanted to be with him again in the end.” He leaned back against the car and drank down the coke as the bowser whirled and clicked, until Rey returned the nozzle to the fuel pump. “What do I owe you?” he asked, straightening up. 

“Thirteen dollars and seventy-five cents,” she said after some hasty mental arithmetic, reclaiming her soda as she accepted his fifteen dollars. “Bring it around to the garage. I’ll just get your change.” 

“Keep it,” Flip said, sliding into the Satellite’s bucket seat. He started up the engine and slowly pulled the car into the garage as Rey walked towards the store, smiling at her healthy tip. It would replace the money she’d spent on the material for her dress. 

Back inside, she’d just rung up the total on the old cash register when Plutt’s rough voice sounded from the depths of the house. “What’s taking so long? You haven’t even started cooking dinner yet!” 

“The customer’s got a broken headlight,” she called back down the hallway. “I’m going to fix it, then I’ll start dinner.” Slamming the register shut, she quietly muttered, “Or maybe you could put your own TV dinner in the damn oven.” 

Flip smirked from the doorway, and she took in a quick breath of surprise - for a big man, he sure moved as quietly as a cat. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you... was that your dad?” he asked, jerking his head to the rear of the building. 

Rey almost choked. “Oh my god! No!” shuddering in revulsion. “He’s my boss,” she added, realising she should probably have called Plutt her guardian. But, by no stretch of the imagination, had the vile man ever been any type of carer to her. 

“That you cook dinner for?” Flip asked suspiciously as she edged past him in the doorway.

“He’s an amputee,” she explained, grimacing at the memory of the gangrenous sore that cost Plutt his foot. As she tried to squeeze past Flip, she realised her head would fit neatly under his chin, with her nose nestled in the little hollow at the base of his throat between his wing-like collarbones. This close, she could smell his scent - sun-dried cotton and pine?

“Still, he doesn’t have to be a jerk about it,” he mumbled, brow furrowed. All of Flip’s attention was focused on peering through the doorway, so he didn’t notice her perusal of his torso as she prolonged her exit from the store. 

This was the land of cowboys, whose shoulders were wide but were otherwise built like string beans. Flip was more like a thick cut of steak, and Rey marvelled at the warmth radiating from his broad chest as she brushed against him, slipping out into the workshop before she was caught staring. 

She’d been incrementally making the garage space her own, from reorganising the tools in a way that made sense to her, to seizing the calendar with the barely clothed girls draped over cars and chucking it straight in the rubbish bin. Instead, she put up one that featured a tropical beach, which prompted a vague memory of seeing the ocean when she was very small, hoping that, one day, she’d get to stand with her feet in the sand while looking out to an endless blue horizon. But, until then, Rey would have to keep her attention on her job.

The Plymouth Satellite’s white paint was covered in a thin coat of rusty brown dust, streaked by the dried splashes from Flip’s windshield washing. Rey pulled on the release and propped open the hood, double-checking that the keys were out of the ignition - when ‘teaching’ Rey to change a headlight, Plutt had allowed her to be electrocuted. He had laughed for days about that. 

Flip leant against the side of the car, opening his bag of potato chips and offering them to her as she went about installing the light. Oddly, he didn’t seem to scrutinise her work or tell her how to do her job.

“Where did you learn all this anyway?” he asked when she finished.

She dumped the broken headlight into the bin. “I’ve lived here since I was little,” she replied. “Plutt is a friend of my parents, they’re roadies on tour with the Beatles,” she told him as she took another chip from the offered bag, hoping he wouldn’t laugh at her. 

“The Beatles?” he repeated, confusion apparent in his voice.

“Yeah,” she said bracing for the mockery. 

“They told you this?” he asked pointedly. 

“Yes,” she said, pulling the letter out of her pocket. “They’re on tour with them right now. See, they sent me a letter!” she said defensively, slightly alarmed by the sudden change in Flip’s demeanour. He looked down at her, frowning, his wide mouth set in a grim line. The hair on the back of Rey’s neck raised and she felt a strange sense of foreboding, like the wind had suddenly shifted and the tornado that should have passed her by was about to slam into her head-on. 

“Rey, I don’t think your parents are touring with the Beatles,” he said gently. “They stopped touring years ago.” She couldn’t bear the compassion in his eyes and had to look away. “Do you ever speak to your parents on the telephone, or have you just been getting letters?” 

There was a faint ringing in Rey’s ears. What did he mean they’d stopped touring? Why would Flip lie to her about that? More to the point, why would her parents lie about that? She’d been getting these letters for years, they were the only thing keeping her here. 

“Honey, did Plutt give you this letter?” Flip had her by the upper arms as she stared up at him in confusion. He looked a little pale under his light tan. “Rey?” 

When she didn’t answer, he quickly swept her legs out from beneath her and carried her over to the car, gently depositing her onto the passenger seat. Forcing the half empty coke bottle into her hands, he begged her to drink a little as he brushed a stray curl from her face. “Rey, you’re in shock. Just breathe for me okay? Just breathe.”

When he seemed satisfied that she wasn’t about to keel over, he knelt in front of her and asked some pointed questions about how long she’d been living with Plutt and working in the garage.

“He never paid you?” 

“No,” Rey admitted. “The deal was always work here in exchange for room and board.” Flip looked livid, but she felt a brief flare of injured pride in response - this was the way she’d always lived.

His hands were still clasped around her elbows like he was afraid she’d collapse without his support, even though she was sitting in the front seat of his car. At some point in the last few minutes, her hands had somehow ended up grasping his muscular forearms. 

“Rey, I’m a police officer,” he said gravely, retrieving a leather wallet from his back pocket containing a silvery police badge and ID card. “I think Plutt’s taking advantage of you here. Is there anyone else you can stay with? Some other relatives, or friends maybe? Because I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave you here,” Flip finished, dark eyes pleading. 

Rey shook her head. That was the truth of it - Plutt had always managed to keep her isolated. Marsha, the old woman who had lived next door, was the only other person who she was ever close to. She’d been the one to explain to a nearly-hysterical thirteen year old Rey that she wasn’t bleeding to death when her periods started. Since Marsha’s death last winter, very little kept her here really, only the letters from her parents, which had become a lot more frequent since then. 

“No one,” she confessed helplessly. Flip was rhythmically clenching his jaw, as if debating whether or not to say what he was thinking. 

“I could take you with me, to Flagstaff or Albuquerque if you want? You could start a new life there,” he said carefully.

Rey was doing a fair bit of internal debating herself - what if her parents came back for her, only to find she’d left?

As if reading her thoughts, Flip said gently, “Rey... if you want, you could come with me to Colorado Springs. I’m a detective there. I can help you find them.”

“Plutt will never let me go,” she confided. “I’m not eighteen for another two weeks.”

“Come on,” he said, voice hardening. “I want to talk to this Plutt.” He said the man’s name with the same inflection she imagined he’d use for describing dog droppings.

Taking her hand in his own, he pulled her to a standing position and she kept her fingers gripped around his as they entered the apartment at the rear of the building. 

Rey was fighting a losing battle with Plutt’s slovenly habits, fuming in frustration at the sight of the overflowing ashtrays and discarded peanut packets laying next to a stacked pyramid of empty beer cans. The man was lounging in his stained recliner as ‘I dream of Jeannie’ flickered across the television screen - one of the newest objects in the room; Simon Plutt’s tight fist only loosened the purse strings for his own needs.

His jowly face tilted back as he busily chugged a beer, failing to register that the dark shape in his peripheral wasn’t Rey. “How long does it take to change a headlight?” he grunted, without bothering to look at her. “Get in the kitchen, you useless slut.” 

It was nothing Rey hadn’t heard before, but the change stealing over Flip seemed to suck the air from the room. Angling his body in front of Rey so that Plutt was blocked from her view and, without turning to look at her, he told her to go get her things in a voice that brooked no oppression.

Hidden behind a wide expanse of white cotton-covered back, Rey hesitated for a moment as Plutt yelped, “Who the hell are you? Get out of my goddamn house!” Flip’s voice was stripped of any of its former warmth as he told the man his credentials. Without delaying, Rey scampered up the stairs to her room as Flip’s deep voice soared above Plutt’s indignant bleats. 

Their argument was muffled by the floorboards and she gave up trying to make out what they were saying. Instead, she frantically grabbed clothes, toilettes and books, and stuffed them recklessly into a battered suitcase. Plutt’s lies had sparked a fire in her gut, a rebellion, long overdue. Rey took off her work shirt in such a rush, two of the buttons went bouncing across her bedroom floor; reefing off her shorts, she snatched her dress from its hanger, but then halted. She’d planned on leaving her work clothes behind but an image somehow floated into her mind’s eye: Flip’s expression when she’d caught him staring at her legs. Snatching the shorts from the floor, she thrust them into the case before she could talk herself out of it. 

Rey quietly padded down the stairs on nimble feet, catching Plutt’s obsequious voice. “Look here!” he drawled. “She’s legal, she’s a good girl. Tell you what, why don’t you just take her upstairs and we’ll forget...” She flinched at the sound of a meaty impact and the nasty crunch that followed. 

Flip emerged from the living room, chewing the inside of his cheek. “How old did you say you are again?” he asked. There was a strained note to his voice as he shook out his right fist, while a piece of old paper hung loosely in his left. 

“Seventeen,” Rey admitted. “What do you mean, how old do I think I am?” She didn’t feel ready for any more shocks.

“You’re not seventeen, baby,” he said softly, placing his hands on her shoulders as his eyes pleaded with her to believe him. You’re twenty.”

  
  


## All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland 

6th March 1970, Ham Tan, Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam. 

The heat here was even more oppressive than Louisiana which, before arriving in Ham Tan, Finn wouldn’t have believed possible.

They’d piled out onto the Caribou on Da Nang Airfield’s tarmac, into air so humid and heavy it felt like his entire body had been wrapped in a barber’s wet shave towel. 

Hauling a Navy issue duffel bag containing everything he owned, Ensign Finn Freeman took in his first impression of Vietnam. Everything was a varying shade of brown or dull green, utterly chaotic, and his home for the next year. 

He’d thought they’d be closer the jungle, but the base was surrounded by nothing but barren earth, its verdant expanse cleared to deprive the Vietcong of cover. Over the shouts of his Sargent and the scream of jets overhead, Finn caught snippets of Creedence playing ‘Fortunate Son’. His team of Seabees, the construction ranks of the US Navy, were stationed here to build, repair and maintain all the structures on base and in the field. As his Sargent stated proudly, ‘Marines may guard the gates of Hell, but it was Seabees that built the road to it’.

After storing their gear, they weren’t given any time to adjust to the heat before immediately being ordered to dig a new latrine block. Finn was faring better in the stifling humidity than most of the new recruits, having grown up in Bayou country. “Keep drinking the water, and keep to the shade when you can, alright?” he advised the others.

A pair of shiny black boots appeared at the edge of the pit. “Boy! Are you in charge here?” a nasally priggish New England accent called from above. 

If there was one thing Finn really hated it was being called ‘boy’.

“Yes, Sir!” he barked, snapping to attention. 

He looked up into the sneering disdain of a red-headed petty officer. The climate hadn’t been very kind to Army Warrant Officer Hux, whose uniform sported dark underarm stains and porcelain complexion glowed with sunburn. His nose and cheeks were peeling in a way that had to hurt. 

“When’s this latrine going to be finished, boy?” 

“We expect to be completed in three days, Sir,” Finn replied, working hard not to let his anger show.

Apparently, this wasn’t good enough for the ginger. “Snoke wants it done in two.” 

Another voice joined in. “As much as I appreciate Colonel Snoke’s desire for a closer bathroom at his age son, y’all can’t make concrete set quicker, especially in this kind of humidity,” Captain Canady said. “Hux, is it? You’re Brendol Hux’s boy?” he asked in a tone of polite astonishment. 

“Yes, Sir,” Hux barked, saluting and flushing an unpleasant shade of puce. 

“Thought your daddy would set you up in a nice air-conditioned office job somewhere like D.C., not in this shit hole?” Canady smirked. “Give him my regards though. You’re dismissed.”

The warrant officer didn’t quite manage to disguise the flounce in his step as he hastily retreated, watched by the mirthful eyes of the enlisted men in their pit. “His father’s a pompous asshole, too,” they heard Canady mutter, and a lot of tongues were bitten to avoid laughing. Later that night, in the mess hall, Finn overheard Hux arrogantly telling a crony that the Captain was ‘past it’.

When he arrived at Colonel Snoke’s office at 0500 the next morning, the first light of dawn revealed the stripped-out carcass of Hux’s brand new army issued Jeep. 

## Killer Queen - Queen, Sheer Heart Attack. 

23rd December 1975, The Green Turtle Tiki Bar, Honolulu Hawaii. 

Kaydel Connix had gone out for pre-Christmas drinks with a few other nurses from the veterans’ hospital.

The Green Turtle had only two redeeming features to balance its tacky décor: it was close to her work place, and the drinks were cheap. Comfortably buzzing by the time she finished her second Mai Tai, she hugged Tallie and Pam goodnight and left them, to order a taxi. The phone was next to the bar and, as she dropped a few coins into its slot, her eyes caught sight of a vaguely familiar guy slumped against the bar, head of dark hair resting on his hand as he sleepily chatted to another guy. 

She watched as the stranger snaked the drunk guy’s wallet out of his jacket as she gave the Green Turtle’s address to the taxi dispatcher, never taking her eyes off the... thief? She wasn’t sure whether he was actually a real pickpocket or just a concerned friend - the familiar-looking guy was now affectionately nuzzling the man’s neck, so maybe he was his boyfriend?

The hair at the nape of her neck prickled as the stranger started scanning the shadowy bar for a moment, before jostling the drunk to his feet and steering him towards the men’s room. They passed under the brighter lights near the toilets, and Kaydel suddenly recognised the drunk. 

“Hey? Hey!” she cried, rushing over to the bouncer and grabbing his arm. “There’s a guy in trouble in the john.”

The huge bouncer glared down at her and sniffed dismissively. “That poof? Nah, honey don’t worry about it,” he said dismissively. “He’s been asking for it all night.”

Turning on her heel, she marched back across the bar room, nudging open the bathroom door and warily surveying the green-tiled room with its several urinals lined along the wall. A single cubicle stood at the far end, under which she spotted two pairs of legs, one with his pants around his ankles. “No!” a male inside the cubicle was slurring his words. “Get off me, man!”

Kaydel slipped inside the room on stealthy feet, not yet sure what she was going to do. Realising the toilet door wasn’t locked, an idea started to form as she frantically rummaged through her purse. A hoarse shout of, “No!” spurred her into action and she kicked the door as hard as she could. It crashed open, connecting forcefully with the rapist’s shoulder. He swore, and she wasted no time spraying her aerosol hairspray directly into the bastard’s eyes. 

Howling with pain, he lurched out of the cubicle, hell bent on strangling Kaydel. With quick reflexes, she seized his shirt collar and belt as she sidestepped him, using his own momentum, pushed him with all her strength, driving his head into the wall. He caught the edge of the urinal and dropped like a stone to the tiled floor, alive but out cold. 

Kaydel staggered back, bile stinging her throat as she glanced at the crumpled heap in the cubicle that was Poe Dameron. 

“Jesus Christ, Poe,” she gasped. “What the hell has the world done to you?” 


	2. Chapter Two

_ **Take It Easy - The Eagles, Eagles** _

The long, simmering rage boiled over.

The slip of a girl had stormed past Flip before he’d even had a chance to anticipate her next move, shoving his considerably larger body aside as she barged into the room. Within seconds, Rey had started punching Plutt’s freshly-broken nose, her bony little fists colliding with his head again and again as he feebly attempted to shield himself.

Flip was at her side in seconds, pinning her flailing arms to her sides and lifting her off her feet. He had to get her away from that vile shit right away.

“WHERE. ARE. MY PARENTS?” she screamed, punctuating each word with a blow, and Flip feared he’d never be able to get the gut-wrenching sound out of his head.

Rey now sat in the passenger side of a stranger’s car as it hurtled down Route Sixty-Six as if it were fleeing the jaws of hell. Flip had carried her out of the building in hurried strides, murmuring in what he’d hoped were low, soothing tones: “It’s OK, Rey. He’s not worth it. We’re going now. It’s going to be alright now, sweetheart...”

She hadn’t said much since they’d left Jakku, she‘d just sat scrutinising her birth certificate until the fading light made it too difficult to read the words any more; she’d carefully folded it and tucked it away in her pocket.

After almost twenty minutes of wondering what on earth he could say to comfort her, he felt a rush of profound relief when she asked if she could play some music. Clearing his throat before replying, he croaked, “There’s a shoebox full of eight-tracks at your feet. Put on whatever you like.”

She leant forwards to pick up the box and began leafing through its contents, filling the car with a clatter of hard plastic as she inspected the collection. Glancing over, he saw her examining the cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sticky Fingers’ with great interest. “That’s a good one,” he said, making motions to put it on before she spotted exactly what was happening in the front of the guy on the cover’s jeans, but the pink flush in her cheeks told him she might’ve already figured it out.

While Flip had been downstairs bestowing Plutt with his due comeuppance, Rey had changed out of her uniform into a pretty white sundress printed with little blue cornflowers and red poppies, held up by the thinnest strips of fabric tied into bows over her elegant bare shoulders. She slid the tape into the player and the opening riff of ‘Brown Sugar’ rocked out of the speakers, causing Flip to squeeze the steering wheel a bit tighter. This was such a great idea, listening to a song with suggestive lyrics about younger women.

He could admit that, as well as the cold revulsion at discovering just how badly Rey had been exploited, there was also a small scrap of relief that she wasn’t actually a teenager. It felt like he’d been handed a ‘get out of jail free’ card.

When she’d told him that she was only seventeen, he’d felt ashamed of ogling her, even if her backside had been right at his eye level as she’d climbed that ladder in those damn shorts, that bared the curve of delicious skin where long tanned legs met her ass.

Flip shifted in his seat to relieve some of the pressure in the front of his jeans, craving a smoke as the enormity of his rash actions hit him full force. He’d more or less just kidnapped her when that asshole had called her a ‘slut’ - but there was just no way he could leave her there. Jimmy was always telling him he had a thing for rescuing damsels in distress… though Rey didn’t exactly fit the bill. She’d gone for Plutt like a wildcat.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” he asked.

Rey looked perplexed for a second, as though she was wondering why he’d even asked, then shook her head and murmured that it was his car. As he reached for the packet of cigarettes on the dashboard, he noticed she was curling in on herself, arms wrapping around her torso and he felt an unsettling pang of apprehension. “Rey?” he said gently. “Honey, you know, if you want to get out of the car at Kingman, I’m not going to stop you.”

“Okay,” she said stiffly, watching as the Zippo lighter flared a fleeting glow in the gathering twilight of the car’s interior. “But I thought you were going to help me find my parents?” she asked as he took a steadying drag.

“I will. I just thought you’d like to know you’re not... you know, obligated...you can head off on your own, if you want?” he finished lamely. That hadn’t come out quite how he wanted, so he tried again. “You’re your own boss now, okay?”

“Okay.” This time she sounded more accepting.

Rey sat very still, her gaze fixed on the twin v-shaped lights as they sliced through the darkening stretch of highway ahead. The setting sun had painted the lower sky in a shifting palette, from vibrant oranges in the west to hot pinks and purplish-blues to the east, and Flip rolled the window down a fraction to let in some fresh air. The dry desert temperature was dropping swiftly and he noticed Rey shiver as the brisk breeze blustered through the car. “Put my coat on,” he said, adjusting the heater. “It’s laying on the back seat.”

She reached between the seats, retrieving not just his shearling coat but also the book he’d been reading, and draped the coat over herself like a blanket; as she tucked her legs beneath her, it almost wholly enveloped her slender frame.

“Thanks,” she said gratefully, holding up the book’s dusty cover. “’The Grapes of Wrath’,” she read out loud in a pleasantly surprised tone.

“Have you read it?” he asked gently, wondering whether Plutt had allowed her to be educated to any decent level.

“Yes,” she groaned, rolling her eyes to let him know she hadn’t missed his unintended condescension. “The lady who used to own the diner next door, she was my teacher. When I was taken out of school, Marsha took it upon herself to teach me.”

“How long did you live there?” he asked, still confused as to how she couldn’t have known how old she actually was - surely she’d had some notion of time?

“I think I lived somewhere by the sea for a while when I was very little,” she mused. “But I don’t recall the name of the place, I just remember the ocean. I’ve been in Jakku ever since.” She fell silent for a few moments, before glancing at him. “I know you’re wondering how I had no idea about my age, but he didn’t exactly throw me any birthday parties, you know what I mean? No Christmas, no rewards for working hard at school...” she continued bitterly, her tone hardening with every word. There wasn’t enough light to tell, but something in her voice told him she was fighting to hold back tears.

“Baby, you were just a kid,” he soothed. “If you were told you were five, how could you know any different? I get it.” Tossing his cigarette out of the window, he took her hand and gently drew her closer so that she was sitting against his arm, although she hesitated slightly at first. But maybe his body warmth was too tempting to pass up and before he knew it, she’d relaxed into his side with her head resting against his shoulder.

“Did you want stop in Yucca tonight? Maybe get something to eat?” he asked quietly.

Without moving, she answered, “Could we just keep going? I want to get further away from him.”

“Are you worried he might send someone to fetch you back?” Flip guessed.

Her head nodded up and down, sending a little frisson through him.

“I’m not going to let that happen, Rey,” he promised, and she just nodded again. “Kingman’s only another half hour away. We’ll stop there for the night.”

“Okay.”

As they drove into the town limits he changed down into second gear, accidentally brushing Rey’s knee - it scarcely mattered, as she was still wrapped in his thick coat, but the action prompted an awkward question about sleeping arrangements later.

Flip cleared his throat as he tried to piece together an appropriate suggestion. “Rey, I’ll pay for two rooms. A young lady should have her privacy,” he said authoritatively, in a more fatherly tone than his own had ever used; she didn’t answer, and he realised that she was fast asleep.

Poor kid - she must be exhausted, he thought as she shifted and slipped down his arm a few inches. After a while, he started having trouble changing gear around her sleepy form but, to his alarm, she solved the problem by resting her head on his thigh and stretching out on the bench seat. Sucking a long, slow breath through his nose, he wondered whether he should pull over and prop her up against the passenger side window instead - much, much further from his cock…

Despite the pleasing weight of her head on his lap and the humid warmth of her breath filtering through the heavy fabric of his jeans, he didn’t want her waking up to discover the effect she was having on him. Instead, he just put his foot down to get to Kingman as quickly as possible.

Rey slept peacefully as Flip followed the winding road through the craggy hills making up the tail end of the Rocky Mountains, like deep indigo shapes against the star filled sky. He’d turned the stereo down, doing his best not to jostle her as he leaned forward, and spent the rest of the journey listening to the hushed strains of rock’n’roll. ‘Moonlight Mile’ was playing softly as he drove down the Main Street of Kingman.

“Rey?” he roused softly, rubbing her shoulder gently. “Honey, wake up. We’re here.”

She breathed in deeply and groaned, stretching and sitting up as she slowly brushed her hair away from her rosy face. Voice low and groggy, she asked, “Are we in Kingman?”

“Yeah. Where should we eat?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t have...” he paused, noticing Rey gaping, wide-eyed, at the vivid neon signs and the crowds of people milling around as they socialised in the cooler night air. Excitement was written all over her face, and he realised that she hadn’t been saying she didn’t have a preference on where to eat - she’d actually meant that she’s never got out to eat before.

He cleared his throat again. “Dad always said ‘go where the locals go’,” he said jovially, but what he really wanted to do was to drive back to Jakku and beat the shit out of Plutt all over again.

Instead, he steered the car towards a diner with several pick-up trucks parked in the spaces out front. The sign above them read ‘Cammie’s Diner’ in green neon that hummed in the chilly night air, and Flip touched his hand to the small of Rey’s back as he escorted her inside. She glanced up at him with a hint of wariness in her eyes, but allowed him to guide her into the diner. A few heads turned to watch the young couple enter the cheerily decorated restaurant.

From behind a sweeping chrome-trimmed counter, a short plump woman in a peach coloured uniform greeted them with warm smile that didn’t seem practised, even if her greeting was, “Hey there, sugar. Did you want to sit down, and I’ll bring you two a menu.” She hadn’t even paused in her task of refilling a customer’s cup of coffee.

Flip thanked the woman, whose name tag stated that she was the eponymous Cammie herself, before he steered them towards the last free booth. The grandmotherly woman bustled over with two menus tucked underneath her ample arm. “There you go,” she cooed, raking her bright brown eyes over them with undisguised interest. “Now, can I get you two lovebirds something to drink?”

Rey smiled sweetly as she airily replied, “Oh, ma’am, we’re not.. we’re cousins!”

Flip hid his astonishment at this bold-faced lie with a blithe smile. “Not much of a family resemblance is there?” He ordered lemonade for them both, skimming his eyes over the menu as Cammie retreated. “Why did we just lie to a perfectly nice lady?” he asked casually, without moving his lips.

“She knew we’re not married,” Rey whispered, shrugging. “I’m not wearing a wedding ring. She probably guessed we’re travelling together, I don’t know... I just thought cousins would be the simplest explanation for an unmarried couple travelling together.” She furtively glanced around the diner. “I don’t know why, but there’s something strange about the way she said ‘lovebirds’, or am I just being paranoid?”

“Nope, I think you’re right. She was fishing,” Flip said, looking up into her eyes and noticing they weren’t brown, as he’d thought previously; they were a clear and earnest hazel.

Cammie returned with two glasses of icy cold lemonade. “Ready to order yet, kids?” she asked, notepad at the ready. Rey pressed her lips into a thin line, scanning the menu.

“We might need a minute more,” he said, smiling mildly. Cammie nodded and returned to the pass, her husband looking out from the kitchen as he wiped his hands on a dish cloth. He picked up the note next to the telephone bearing a hastily scrawled telephone number.

“She doesn’t look like she’s been kidnapped to me,” Cammie muttered doubtfully. “Look at them!” He turned his gaze to the booth, squinting in suspicion. The tall black haired young man wore a soft expression as he spoke softly and earnestly to the willowy girl on the other side of the booth; the young lady looked a little upset, but not afraid, as she leaned towards him.

“And they told me they were cousins!” Cammie said in mock outrage, clearly amused.

The cook snorted, smirking at his wife, and his stormy blue grey eyes narrowed. “Kissing cousins maybe,” he huffed. “Do you remember Plutt ever saying that he had a daughter?”

“Not once,” she declared flatly. “Plutt looks like a cross between a Gila monster and slug - there’s no way his daughter would be that pretty. Look at the way the young man’s looking at her, Luke! That boy’s got no bad intentions for that girl.”

“He’s not a boy, Cammie. He’s a grown man,” Luke said stubbornly as he reached for the phone and began dialling, sighing heavily as Cammie firmly depressed the disconnect button.

“If his daughter has been kidnapped, why didn’t he just call the police, Luke?” Cammie persisted, tugging both receiver and slip of paper out of his hand. Replacing the handset back on the cradle, she stuffed the paper in her pocket with an air of finality while Luke Skywalker looked at his wife with a mulish expression.

“You’d better be sure about this,” he rumbled as he took the ticket with the younger couples dinner order. She merely arched a greying eyebrow at him before returning to her customers.

“Rey, please. I get it, I really do, but the fact is you don’t have much money. You can’t earn any while you’re on the road and I just sold my parents’ house for a decent profit, so stop talking and order whatever you want!”

“What would your parents think about you wasting their money on me?” Rey challenged rebelliously.

Flip stared at her for a beat before leaning towards her. “My dad would have adopted you as soon as he found out you’re a mechanic, and my mother would’ve strangled Plutt with her bare hands,” he said with impish delight. “I’m ordering you a steak.”

Rey bit down on her lip to prevent any angry words bursting out. “Flip, don’t...” she realised the sense of his argument but she wasn’t willing to concede just yet.

Cammie returned. “Okay, are y’all ready to order, honey? Or did you want some more time?” she asked Rey congenially.

When Rey hesitated, Flip spoke up. “How about we have two orders of medium rare t-bones with a baked potato and salad with thousand island dressing. Sound good, cuz?”

She narrowed her eyes at him just a touch before telling Cammie sweetly that that was just fine. “Anything for dessert? The special is apple pie à la mode, or there’s sunshine pie?”

“We’ll have one of each. Could you recommend a motel nearby, ma’am?” Flip asked, not relishing the thought of driving around in the dark looking for a place to stay after the meal.

“Sure. The Twin Sun Motel is about two street east from here, it just got refurbished. Nice couple bought it, Maz and Chewie.” She patted Flip’s upper arm. “They’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about how they look, though, they’re good people.” And on that cryptic note, she bustled off to fill their order. Flip frowned slightly and turned his attention back to Rey, who was suddenly looking extremely agitated.

“What?” he asked, almost defensively.

“Don’t do that again,” she said tightly.

“Do what?” He stilled, utterly flummoxed.

“I want to choose for myself from now on,” she grated out.

“You didn’t like what I ordered?” he said as made to raise a hand to get Cammie back, but she seized it and his eyes followed as she pressed it to the table.

“It’s not the food,” she said, flushing. After a moment of awkward hesitation, she gritted out, “You just took away one of the first real choices I’ve ever had.” Releasing his hand quickly, she looked both furious and embarrassed.

Flip had caught a hint of a tan while he was in California, and he now found himself hoping it would disguise the flush in his cheeks as he guiltily squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Rey. I didn’t think of it that way.” He reopened them and looked at her imploringly. “I’m not like Plutt. I meant it when I said you’re your own boss. I just wanted you to have a good meal,” he finished lamely.

“Just give me a chance to choose for myself from now on, okay?”

He reached out a hand for hers and was relieved when she took it, realising she probably hadn’t had much choice about anything in her life so far. “I’m sorry,” he sighed. “Did you still want what I ordered, or should I get the waitress back?” he asked as he rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand.

“Uhm, no, ‘cause that sounded really good,” she admitted with a little laugh.

Behind the counter, Cammie Skywalker raised an imperious eyebrow at her husband, who harrumphed and turned to the grill to check on his steaks.

_ **Loop Garou - Dr John, Remedies** _

Dog Patch was the town nearest the base, a tangle of ramshackle buildings spiderwebbed by a lattice of electric wires. The monsoon had reduced the unpaved roads to canals of mud, but that didn’t stop him peering impatiently into the shitty-looking houses, sneering at the brown faces and slanting dark eyes staring warily back at him.

Despite having walked miles, his elation hadn’t been dampened by the torrential rain, which had soaked into his boots and washed away the blood.

Pimps always have that one whore who’s more trouble than she’s worth. A few American dollars had greased the right hands, and she’d arrived: another perfect lotus blossom, slim with long black hair streaming down her back. He smiled softly as he recalled the way she’d whined as he sank his teeth into the soft, sweet flesh of her breast and her voice had built into a high, thin scream around the gag.

_ **Do You Feel Like We Do - Peter Frampton, Frampton’s Camel** _

How could a pillow be so damn loud?

He was so hungover even his hair ached. This was purgatory - his Abuela was right, he was going to hell in a handbasket. Reluctantly opening his eyes, he considered that he might already be on his way, or perhaps he was just heading there naked and wrapped in pink floral bed sheets.

He was in an unfamiliar bedroom, which wasn’t a particularly out of the ordinary event - he’d woken up in his fair share of strangers’ beds. It was unusual to wake up alone, though.

He made to sit up and was immediately assaulted by a wave of nausea.

“Hey. Hey! There’s a bucket beside the bed!” a feminine voice called urgently, and Poe didn’t need to be told twice. Hhhhaaarrrggg Hhhaarrgg!

“That’s it, keep your head right in the bucket,” the woman told him dryly. “Let’s not have a repeat of what happened on the lawn. That hibiscus bush is probably never going to recover and you’re going to hose off those front steps by the way, when you can stand.”

The lawn? Poe thought hazily. Who was this woman? He could’ve sworn he’d been talking to a guy last night, a hot one. Or, at least, he’d seemed so through Poe’s beer goggles: dirty blonde hair with bedroom eyes and a ‘you can’t take me home to mama’ appeal. Poe retracted his head from the bucket, and a slim hand offered him a damp cloth as drool dripped down his chin.

Accepting it with a heartfelt, if raspy, “Thank you”, he wiped the deliciously cool cloth over his face, moaning softly as he did so. His head felt like it was being cleaved in two - his own fault, as he’d been drinking Long Island iced teas like they were Dr Peppers since lunch.

“Rough night, Captain?” the woman asked sardonically.

Two hands appeared, this time presenting him with a glass of water and two Tylenol tablets. His eyes followed the shapely arm up to pair of doe-like brown eyes and a cloud of long honey blonde hair, noticing that she wearing a lemon coloured baby doll nightie that barely covered her. He squinted at its brightness, thinking he’d somehow woken up in Brigitte Bardot’s bedroom. Good for him.

Reaching out a shaking hand, he took the pills gratefully. “Just sip the water or you’re going to throw up again, got it?” On closer inspection, he realised the woman was not, of course, Brigitte Bardot, but he still had no idea who she was.

“Understood,” he repeated grimly, before putting them in his mouth and gingerly sipping the water. He hauled himself up against the bedhead, which he realised was one of those wicker peacocktail-shaped ones (pretty but not terribly sturdy), and awkwardly tried to sit properly without resting too much of his weight on it while gripping the sheets over his lap.

He wasn’t shy by any means, but he got the impression there hadn’t been any sex between them last night and apparently he’d been a pain in the ass. Best not to push the tentative friendship by flashing his balls at her.

“Don’t have a clue who I am then?” the blonde said playfully. “Well, I suppose we weren’t formally introduced. Kaydel Connix. I was one of the nurses who cared for your friend, Finn Freeman.” There was a delicate stress on the word ‘friend’ which spoke volumes.

He pursed his lips tightly against the groan building up, wait... nope, that was vomit. Poe plunged his head back into the bucket.


	3. Chapter Three

##  You’ve got a friend - James Taylor, Mud slide slim and the blue horizon. 

They drove to the motel in silence with Rey’s heart knocking an uncomfortable tattoo against her ribs. Her limited funds couldn’t cover more than one or two nights at even the cheapest motel. She even briefly considered sleeping in the car but she was sure that wasn’t a good idea.

Rey nervously eyed Flip‘s huge hands as he clenched and unclenched them on the steering wheel, like he was strangling it. With those enormous mitts he could probably encircled her entire neck with one hand. He seemed nice but what if it was all a ruse? She really hoped she hadn’t escaped Plutt to end up in a shallow grave in the desert. 

The neon lights of the Twin Suns motel come into view as they drove over the rise in the road. Red and yellow circles glowing against the night, Flip steered the car into a parking space in front of the office, the portico seemed to be overflowing with hanging baskets of Christmas cactus, their vibrant scarlet, purple and orange flowers reminded Rey of ribbons as the gently swaying in the night breeze. 

Flip turned off the engine and they sat for a moment, both holding their breaths waiting for some sign on how to proceed. “I think it’s best if you have your own room.” He said tentatively.

“That’s probably for the best.” Rey replied in a mortifyingly squeaky little voice. “And we should stick with the cousin story.”

“Yep, it’s a solid plan”

Fortified by this exchange, they both slid out of the car to go inside. The foyer as was neat as a pin, the smell of fresh paint suggested the pinkish terracotta paint on the walls was recent. Flip tapped the bell on the front desk, flinching when a small, extremely tanned woman with glasses perched on her nose that magnified her sherry coloured eyes to a terrifying size, popped up from underneath the desk with an agility that defied her advanced age. 

“Good grief, you are almost as big as my Chewie!” She exclaimed joyfully as peered up at Flip. “Cammie said you and your cousin would be coming, you’re in luck I have a room available.” 

Flip was spurred into action by Rey’s alarmed expression, clearing his throat he addressed the little woman. 

“We were actually hoping for separate rooms Ma’am.”

Rey nodded smiling, hoping her expression didn’t come across as panicked. 

“Please call me Maz” she drawled “I’m sorry but we don’t have any other vacant rooms, I was able to keep one room available for you but this is the busy season here, people are headed to the canyon before it gets too hot.” 

Flip opened his mouth but closed it when Rey interjected. 

“That will be fine, thank you.” Rey said her voice firm taking the keys that the little woman had placed on the counter.

“We offer a Continental breakfast too.” 

Rey didn’t know what a continental breakfast was but if it was breakfast it would be okay by her. Flip gave her a questioning look which she answered with a nod before he told the tiny proprietress that they would like that. Apparently he was going to check with her before making decisions on her behalf. Flip paid with cash and flushing a faint pink went to move the car. 

“I’ll just need you to sign the book.” Said Maz holding up a Bic pen while she pushed the leather bound guest register at Rey. “Just sign in for your cousin too.

Then it dawned on Rey she didn’t know Flip’s surname, he hadn’t mentioned it over dinner, when he’d shown her his police badge she’d not really focused on his name, was it Chapman? No, it had been a longer name, something man but what? All these thoughts careened through her brain before Maz kindly asked. 

“Child.. he’s not really you cousin, is he?” 

Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. “Please..”

The older woman was around the corner in a flash. “That Plutt is a terrible man but you don’t have to go with that man if you only want to get away from Plutt. My Chewie will take care of him” she said gripping Rey’s hand tightly. 

“Oh no.. Flip he’s a good guy, he’s a policeman…” her words tapering off when a man who had to be seven feet tall and was completely covered in thick brown hair stepped out of the back room. 

“Is everything okay  _ Mí Alma _ ?” He asked in heavily accented English. Rey was struck still, speechless and wide eyed. 

“This is my Chewie, you haven’t told me your name yet _chiquita?” _She prompted Rey out of her rudeness. 

“I’m sorry it’s Rey, Rey Johnson.” She said, at least Plutt hadn’t lied about that, it said so on her birthday certificate. 

“ _ Hola _ Miss Johnson.” His voice was a rumble, and Rey knew in her bones that he was a gentle soul. 

With little coaxing the whole story came spilling out by the time Flip came looking for her. Maz and Chewie insisted that Rey spent the night in their spare room which doubled as her art studio. All the stunning landscape paintings that decorated the motel being Maz’s own work. 

The next morning she and Flip, who’s last name was Zimmerman she quickly found out, left the motel the next morning with bellies full of Huevos Divorciados and one of Maz’s paintings that Rey had admired, in the back seat of the car. 

She looked over her shoulder at the picture when they where about ten miles out of Kingsman, “that’s so beautiful, where do you think that place actually is?”

Flip looked shocked “ Are you telling me, you’ve never been to the Grand Canyon?”

She shrugged awkwardly “it wasn’t like Plutt took me on vacation. He’d go to Vegas for a few days..”

“I know you said don’t make decisions for you but we’re going.” He said earnestly “that okay with you?” 

Rey mute with tears in her eyes could only nod.

“You’re going to need a hat and stuff right? How about we drive to Flagstaff, get you some clothes and whatever else you need and we’ll go tomorrow, Okay?”

“Okay..”

He probably wouldn’t have been so quick to suggested the detour if he’d known about the mules. 

  
  


##  Soul man - Sam and Dave, Soul Men

Mosquitoes, snakes and people wanting to murder you for no particular good reason didn’t bother Finn all that much, he was used to that. It was the food. 

Bland tasteless mush, over salted with watery gravy and meat that could double as boot leather. For a man raised on the border of Texas and Louisiana, it was intolerable. His dreams were filled with Boudin and the perfume of sassafras from the Filé Gumbo. 

So he followed his nose into Dogpatch, the little group of shanty home of refugees, houses of ill repute and bars that sat not from the border of the base. 

He found a tall slender woman around his age making what looked like crepes stuffed with a kind of mud bugs and something not to far from collard greens. She sat in a little makeshift kitchen which amounted to a wok, a kerosene burner and a chopping board surrounded by seating and tables made of all manner of things, old oil cans and drums for chairs and tables but it was buzzing with customers, which Finn took as a sign that the food was good 

He made his way to the cook, not knowing how exactly how he was going to order since he didn’t understand any Vietnamese, the other customers watched him with differing expressions. There was unabashed curiosity and interest, but mostly a sullen distrust. 

She greeted him with a bob of the head, she was very pretty with full rosy lips and high cheekbones. Finn held up a few dong, the local currency and pointed to food, her lithe brown hand quickly took the money. Finn smiled ruefully, what a coincidence he’d held up the exact amount of money for a crepe. With a few deft movements, the cook handed him the delicate bundle of food on a tin plate. He took a seat near the muddy road and took his first bite. 

It was amazing, after bland rations it was a revelation. He moaned out loud and people stared at him but Finn was too lost in pleasure to care. This was bliss, fresh and sour, sweet and tangy, it just needed a little kick he considered after another bite. 

He approached her again, looking at the condiments he pointed to a small bottle and his mouth and made a wheezing sound.

“Are you asking if that’s hot sauce?” She asked dryly. 

“I didn’t think you’d speak English..” he admitted heat flooding his face. “Sorry”

“It’s okay.” She told him “I made that one with no chilli, you joes don’t like it, you want another one?” 

He nodded vigorously “make it hot, don’t hold out on me this time girl.” He said as he finished his first Bàhn Xéo.

Phuong didn’t and it took a long drink of pressed sugar cane juice to quench the fire in Finn’s mouth. 

From then on Finn went to see Phuong and her younger sister Huong every chance he got but with his slow delta drawl he just couldn’t pronounce their names properly. 

“Well what does hu.. hewg?” She was laughing at him. “Even mean”

She was shorter than her sister with a cameo of a face. “It means a pink rose.”

“Well how about I just call you Rose then?”

##  Why can’t we be friends? - War, Why can’t we be friends?

After a shower and some Tylenol, Kaydel up graded her patient from ‘on death’s door’ to merely ‘looks like shit’. 

He was sitting at her kitchen table in her pink chenille bathrobe with a thick growth of stubble on his cheeks and wearing a pair of sunglasses an ex boyfriend had left behind, nursing his coffee against his chest as he was watching the surf at the end of the yard. 

“This is a beautiful home, don’t need a roommate, do you?” He rasped 

“Actually I do, my roommate moved without notice to elope with her boyfriend on the big island.” 

“Would you always be dressed like this?” He asked impishly. 

Kaydel glancing down at her nightgown frowning slightly, after all what did it matter to him what she wore. 

His hooded eyes traced the long lines of her legs from her fluffy slippers to the lace that edged her pants shamelessly, he bit his bottom lip before declaring “because a man could get used to that.”

She made an indelicate snort “don’t even bother Stud, I know you’re gay.” 

“I enjoy both men and women’s company, why restrict myself?” He shrugged 

“You’re.. bisexual?” She whispered. 

He smirked over his coffee cup “guilty as charged” 

He was toying with her, but she could tell his flirting wasn't genuine. There was a sadness, a weariness in his deep brown eyes, that told her her was putting up a good front. So she feigned worldliness she didn’t feel as she made more coffee and put some toast on. 

“Thank you” he said as she topped up his cup then hers “I don’t really remember much after my fourth drink, what happened?”

Kaydel raised her cup and took a sip “What do you remember?” 

“No much, there was a guy.. blonde.” 

She crossed the kitchen picking up his wallet from the green Formica counter. “He tried to steal your wallet and umm ... he was going to force himself on you…”

“You stopped him.” This wasn’t a statement of disbelief, he was remembering it. “Thanks Kaydel.. I owe you.” He said taking her hand in his own. 

“Anytime Captain,” giving his hand a squeeze “Where you serious about the roommate thing?” 

“You offering?” 

“Yeah I’m not kidding Tam left me in the lurch. This is my parents' place but they worry if I live alone.” She admitted as her toast popped up. 

“Well I’m staying at the ‘Y’ now,... Where actually am I?” He asked scanning the kitchen and living room, sturdy cane pieces of furniture with cushions featuring tropical flowers, timber floors and airy green walls. 

“Ewa Beach” she said munching on her piece of toast. 

“That’s only what.. 20 minute? half an hour from the Airport. Miss Connix, I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

“If you hose the steps down. Yeah, why not?” she said holding up her breakfast so they could clink their cup and toast together to seal the deal. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t use the actual ethical slurs they would’ve used at the time. We all know these words but I could not bring myself to write the whole word down. 
> 
> I think it would be a white wash to act like Finn, Rose and Poe’s characters wouldn’t have in countered racism. In 1965 African American soldiers made up only 11% of overall forces in Vietnam but they made up 14.1% of the total casualties. 
> 
> They’ll be glossary at the end of the chapter since I’ll be using some terms that might be unfamiliar to some.

##  A horse with no name - America, America

The only thing that was keeping Flip on this narrow cliff side track hundreds of feet in the air, was an ass and it wasn’t the one that was between his legs. 

Rey chose that moment to turn around in her saddle, swaying over the precipice. Completely unafraid of plunging to her death and grinning broadly at him. 

His returning smile was more of a pained grimace, he fucking hated heights. Sweat was trickling down his back, soaking his shirt. He was sure he had a dandy sunburn and his mouth felt like sandpaper, he give anything for a drink but he was too terrified to take his hands off the saddle to reach for his canteen. For the three hours his lifeline had been Rey in shorts. 

She was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a flowering cactus at sunset on it, that they’d bought at a souvenir shop in Flagstaff with second hand cowgirl boots and straw hat. He refocused his attention on her perfect peach of ass and not on falling to his death when she stood up in the stirrups to get a better view of the sweep of the canyon. 

“Rey! Baby be careful..” he called sharply. His donkey made a raucous hee hawing like the damn thing was laughing at him. 

“Flip, this is amazing!” She laughed. 

He was glad she was excited but couldn’t she be excited on the ground? 

What felt like a lifetime later, Flip staggered off the mule and stretched his bent back out, his balls ached viciously and his head throbbed. Lifting his canteen to his lips, draining half in one go.

“Thirsty?” Rey said cheekily. 

He moaned in answer and pressed the cool metal container to his forehead. 

The tour guide had suggested that they could have a swim in the Colorado river when they got to the bottom of the ravine. With the fear removed he could appreciate now just how stunning this place was, the orange, cream and salmon banded cliffs soared above a ribbon of deep green water. 

“Are you coming in? I’d feel better if you came in with me.” She was twisting his mother’s engagement ring and a cheap wedding band they picked up in a pawn shop, around her finger as she spoke. 

He swallowed thickly one of her wardrobe purchases yesterday had been a crocheted swimsuit and she’d thrown it on underneath her clothing when the owner of the motel had mentioned that the donkey ride to the bottom of the canyon would include a swim in the river. 

He left his swimming trunks in the car after he’d taken one last swim in the Pacific before his long drive east, not wanting to put it in his suitcase wet he’d just throw them in the trunk. So he’d worn them under his jeans, which probably contributed to the pain in his balls. But then again Rey’s lithe body encased in what amounted to nothing but strategically placed brown knots probably didn’t help, the macrame revealed small squares of toned waist that had him salivating then glaring at a French tourist who was openingly leering at her as she nervously shed her T-shirt and shorts. 

Flip stepped between them as he removed his shirt to act as a screen and a deterrent. He took Rey’s hand to lead her into the water, holding up her hand so the sunlight caught on the sapphire, just to make sure Pierre was left with no fucking doubt that she was taken. 

Rey hadn’t been taught how to swim so they kept to the shallows, he groaning as the cool water soothed his aching body. Rey made a similar squeak as she sank into the river. 

“Horseback riding works different muscles.” He grumbled still hanging onto her hand, he noticed her eyes were wide and lingering on his torso. 

“Thank you for taking me here, I never would’ve imagined there were places like this.” Looking up at the canyon walls soaring above, when she realised she was caught staring. 

“It’s my pleasure” It really was, he was drinking in Rey’s enthusiasm for everything around her, Flip hadn’t realised he’d become more than a little jaded. Just getting things done, not really enjoying his life. 

He closed his eyes, inhaling the coconut scent of her suntan lotion as they waded further into the river. 

“Feeling better?” 

“Much” he groaned before ducked under the surface of the water, when opened his eyes Rey was smiling softly at him. Oh right his ears. 

With his hair soaking wet they were probably sticking out like handles on a trophy, she reached out her hand tentatively and brushed a dripping hank of hair behind his left ear, her lips looked so soft.

If only they had some god damn privacy, four feet from them a woman from Ohio was smearing white zinc oxide over the bridge of her squirming eight year old’s nose while two young German tourists were talking animatedly obviously to the angry glares of another man who looked to be fifties. 

The tour guide was asking everyone to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes, this drew the mother’s attention causing her to release her boy who ran headlong into the water, splashing both Flip and Rey with his wake. 

“Paul! you hear that Paul! there’s rattlesnakes here! You be careful!” She shrieked. “Don’t you come crying to me if you get bitten”

Flip smirked as Rey murmured softly “Well, he’s going to need to do that if you do want him to die..”

He drew her gently out into deeper water, away from the noise. “I can’t touch the bottom” she whispered her grip tightening in his own. 

“I got you, I’m going to teach you how to float.” He told her, he could feel the water swirling around his legs from her frantic little kicks then her foot collided with his shin. 

“Sorry” 

“Didn’t hurt, come here..” he rumbled then cleared his throat, that had more of a sexy tone to it then it should have. He’d almost called her baby again, a bad habit he’d fallen into over the last few days. 

“Just lift up your feet and lay flat, I’ll hold on you okay” he continued sounding more distant this time not as chummy. She dipped under the surface as she did as he asked, Flip pressed his hand gently to her back, touching her leg so she would feel supported. “Lift your hips..” he instructed. 

Flip felt her relax as she realised that the water would hold her, so he gently moved her so she was going around him in a slow circle like a planet in rotation around its sun. But in fact, the opposite was true, he was beginning to feel she was keeping him in a steady orbit around her. 

They floated and swam until their fingers and toes were pruny, well he swam with Rey’s arms around his neck while she clung to his back. The guide yelled that they had twenty minutes to get out of the water and pack up their belongings. The whinging Paul had to be dragged from the water. 

“Doesn’t exactly leave eager for kids, does it.” She said in a low voice as she slid into her shorts.

“Well not that that one.” Flip admitted lowering his voice to match hers. “..do you not want kids?” 

She thumped her boots out against a rock “you should do the same, tarantulas and scorpions can crawl in there” after a long moment just when Flip was wondering if she was going to ignore the question completely when she said softly, “I’d be scared.. I wouldn’t know what to do with them, kids are something that you shouldn’t mess up.”

Flip wasn’t terribly physically affectionate person, being a cop had left him with a mistrust of people in general but he didn’t resist when she stepped into his arms when he’d reached to stroke a comforting hand up her arm. 

Rey was tall enough for her head to fit comfortably under his chin, her arms wrapped around his waist as he rubbed her back, surprised by the wiry muscle he felt there.

“No, kids aren’t something anyone should screw up.. which is why you’d never do that.”

“How do you know?” She asked the vulnerability in her voice twisted his heart. 

“Just do..” Flip’s shrug jousting her slightly. 

“Everyone” the guide said clapping his hands “If I could ask you to get back on the mules please!”

Flip clenched his jaw and allowed Rey to lead him back to the caravan of discomfort. 

##  War - Edwin Starr, War and Peace 

Finn was laying face down in the leaf litter that was strewn over the jungle floor, his cheek pressed against the ground and he was still trying to get lower. Two sharp cracks right over his head and the impacts to his backpack told him that the bullets were missing his head by only four inches at the most. 

Lieutenant Knight the newly arrived from Alabama, was screaming at him to get his b***k ass out of the dirt and return fire. When something bounced off Finn’s helmet and landed at the feet of the officer, Finn scrambled to his knees just as the grenade exploded. He was thrown three feet forward into a depression behind a tree that two marines where using as a foxhole. 

“Fuck! I was really looking forward to fragging that son of a bitch, g*ks bet me too it!” 

The marine that was firing on the seemingly impenetrable wall of green ahead of them then yelled at him, “Hey sailor, We build We fight, that it right? Well now's the time man!” He shouted in between bursts of clattering fire of his M-16. 

Finn’s own M-16 was laying a few feet from the shredded blooded boot of the unlamented lieutenant, keeping low he lobbed a grenade of his own back and as it detonated, he snatched up the rifle and returned fire. 

He wasn’t supposed to even be here, he’d been volunteered to go on this trip ‘in country’ to repair a pump in an evac hospital unit. 

Now he was pinned down by the Viet Cong with a bunch of redneck jar-heads who had been looking forward to murdering their commanding officer, and they’d just been disappointed. 

Hell of a way to spend your twentieth birthday. 

##  Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby, White Christmas 

A life in the Air Force and a divorce had left Poe with few possessions and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. Things only weighed you down, he loved being able to pick up and go at a moment’s notice and the faster he could go, the better. 

Speaking of things going faster, although he’d practically begged her, Kaydel absolutely refused to let him drive her ‘66 Mustang convertible. 

“This is my baby, I’m not handing her over to you flyboy.” She told as she ran a loving hand over the shimmering Tahoe Turquoise paint work. 

Poe slouched in the passenger seat as she drove them towards the Green Turtle on H1, the rain they’d had during the week had passed for the moment and they risked putting the top down for the drive.

“Don’t pout.” She chided the wind picking up the tendrils of blonde that weren’t confined by the jaunty kerchief she’d tied around her head.

“I’m not pouting.” He grumbled shifting in his still slightly damp clothes, she gave a chuckle as she changed lanes, Linda Ronstadt asking when she’d be loved on the radio and Poe quickly changed the station.

“You don’t like Linda Ronstadt?”

“Too country..” he grunted before finding a scratchy guitar with a funky bass line and a harmony of falsettos, the BeeGees singing ‘Jive Talkin’. 

“Much better!” Kaydel said. “What are you doing for New Years? There’s a nightclub on Kapahulu Avenue, do you like disco?”

“Never been.” He said sitting up in his seat with interest. “Sounds good though, it’s a date!”

“Not a date,” she crowed happily.

“Okay not a date!” He conceded laughing. 

Fifteen minutes and a duet of ‘How sweet it is’ that wouldn’t have made James Taylor cringe, they pulled into the bar’s parking lot.

“Which one is yours?” Kaydel asked.

“The beetle.”

“Oh my gosh Poe! it’s so adorable ! it looks like a creamsicle!” She squealed taking in the car’s Navajo orange and white paint job. 

The 1958 Volkswagen Beetle’s side panels were white while it’s hood, roof and trunk were a vivid orange. It might not have been the most macho or coolest of vehicles but there was something about it, like it had a personality. Somehow the sound of the air cooled engine clattering to life never failing to bring a smile to his face. 

Their next stop was the YMCA just off Waikiki beach, in under an hour all his worldly possessions were divided between his and Kaydel’s trunks. Leaning against the bug he asked. “What are you doing for Christmas?”

Kaydel slumped against the car beside him. “I’ve been trying not to think about it, I’ve got to work tonight but I’m off Christmas Day. My parents are having Christmas with my Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Marv in Scottsdale.”

“Then how does some Mai Tais, Tamales Colorados and then you..” He said pulling her into a quick little Samba step, twirling her and then dipping her with practiced ease “can show me your best disco moves, it will be a fun if unconventional Christmas?” 

As their impromptu Fred and Ginger routine received an enthusiastic round of applause and wolf whistles from some guys coming out of the ‘Y’. Kaydel exclaimed, “You can move.”

“I’m half Cuban half Guatemalan, I got the music in me.” He chided to the tune of the song of the same name. “Say we head to the market then home, I’ll start cooking you the best tamales you’ve ever eaten” he asked as he lifted her from her inclined position. 

“Lead the way.”

Some time later, carting armloads of shopping Poe got out of his car in front of the house. He paused, frowned then dashed across the driveway to Kaydel. 

“You didn’t pull down the blinds in the front window before we left, did you?”

Her doe eyes widened as she shook her head, “stay here, I’m going to check it out” he shoved the groceries onto the back seat of the mustang, returned to the beetle and pulled the 38. Smith & Western he’d brought back state side out of the depths of his duffle bag. 

Quietly unlocking the laundry room door he slipped inside, he could hear someone moving around in the kitchen and he could hear a man talking further inside the house. He burst into the room weapon at the ready barking “Hands were I can see them!”

The older woman with coiffed ash brown hair and familiar shaped to her mouth shrieked and dropped a 12lbs butterball turkey on the floor with a resounding wet smack. An outraged man with piercing brown eyes stepped out from behind the refrigerator shouting “What the hell do you think you’re doing Son!”

“Daddy?” Kaydel called from the garage. “Mama, Daddy! you’re here! you said you were going to have Christmas with Aunt Bitsy this year, what are you doing here!” She cried pushing past Poe who sank against the counter with relief and unloaded the pistol before stashing it in a drawer.

Kaydel’s mother scooped the turkey off the floor and placed it in the sink before she air kissed her daughter. “All part of the ruse, Moon pie”

“Who is this Kaydel?” Dr Henry Connix, a retired lieutenant general of the united states army medical corps growled eyeing Poe narrowly and fairly bristling with paternal suspicion. 

Poe thinking fast offered a limp handshake and contrived the most effeminate voice he could muster. 

“Oh my! we have gotten off on the wrong foot haven’t we! I’m Poe Dameron..” he exclaimed as he shook hands with Dr Connix “I am so sorry! I just don’t know what I would have done if you were a real burglar!” He exclaimed flourish his hands theatrically. 

Poe did still end up moving in, Harold and Carolyn Connix deciding that they liked the idea of a man around the house, for both Kaydel’s safety and household maintenance, Kaydel had lost four roommates to marriage in the past two years. She was gaining a reputation as a marriage luck charm at the hospital. 

It was a strain on Poe to keep the act up for the duration of the Connix’s stay in Hawaii. As Harold packed their luggage in the taxi for the fight home to San Diego, Carolyn cornered Poe for a tête-à-tête. 

“Time to drop the horse shit Son.” She instructed him after finishing her third mimosa and lit a Virginia slim. “The camp act might fool Harold but it sure ain’t fooling me.” Her peaches and cream Georgia accent turning steely, she took a drag on her cigarette and studied him carefully “You seem like a nice young fella and I don’t think you have any bad intentions for my baby girl. Because if I did, I’d dump your carcass in that ocean, do we understand each other?”

Chastened in his normal accent he answered “Yes, ma'am.” 

“Good,” she said, “now give me some sugar!” before pulling him into a motherly hug, that was perfumed by Arpege and lady grade tobacco.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fragging was to murder a unpopular senior officer. 
> 
> There are stories of soldiers waiting for until an officer went to the bathroom and throw a grenade with pin in after him and note saying if you don’t stop trying to get us killed the next won’t have the pin or just flat out shooting them in the back. That’s how unpopular this war was.
> 
> To go ‘In country’ was to go in to the interior of Vietnam most of the cities are near the coast while the interior is farmland, mountains and jungles.


	5. Chapter Five

##    
Will you still love me tomorrow? - Carole King, Tapestry. 

The motel in Flagstaff had a garden, desert plants in a bewildering array of shapes from stately saguaros to squat barrel cacti covered with vicious yellow spikes and dozens upon dozens of succulents in vivid colours ranging from reds and greens to purples and silvery greys. Fortunately for Flip Zimmerman, aloe vera was one of the plants present. 

The owner Mr Embo had graciously offered some leaves for several massive specimens in his backyard. Grown specifically because badly sunburnt guests were a very regular occurrence. 

Shaded by his enormous hat and accompanied by his hulking German Shepard, who had to have been part wolf, he guided Rey around his beautiful garden pointing out the more interesting varieties of agave. After giving Marrok’s ears a thorough scratching and thanking her host, Rey got a bucket of ice from the machine and two cokes before returning the room. 

Flip was stretched on the double bed on his stomach in nothing but plaid Bermuda shorts with his huge feet dangling off the end of the mattress, the angry red skin on his back and shoulders already blistering. 

“Did the cold shower help?” 

“No..” he moaned “it felt like needles digging into my skin.”

Rey made a cooing noise as she buried the cokes and the aloe leaves in the ice to cool, then kneeling on the bed beside him. Wincing, as she inspected the damage to his poor skin, the blisters ranged from about the size of a quarter to one almost the size of Rey’s palm. 

“You took your time.. everything okay?” He asked. 

“Yeah, Mr Embo sure likes to talk about his garden, how does pb&j’s and a Coke sound for dinner? Or I could drive into town, try to find something else.” Rey was moving about the motel room as she spoke, wetted down two of her handkerchiefs and gently laying them across his shoulders before adjusting the fan to point more directly at his back. 

“A sandwich sounds great.” He grunted. 

She made the sandwiches, thick with peanut butter and raspberry jelly, “Did you want the crusts on or off?” 

“On because I am an adult.” He drawled testily. 

Rey tamped down the snicker that bubbled up at his surliness, it wasn’t nice to laugh at him when he was in pain like this.

“Here you go” she said offering him a plate with two sandwiches on it “sit at the end of the bed and I’ll put the aloe on your back.” 

He sat up and shuffled down the bed and accepted the plate with a muttered ‘thank you’. Rey fished the drinks out of the ice then rummaged through the scant contents of the room’s utensil drawer. 

“There’s a bottle opener on my keychain, hand it over..” he grumbled. 

He produced his keys from the pair of jeans he’d left lying on the end of the bed and popped the caps off both bottles. He offered her, one clinking his bottle against hers “Cheers”

Rey sat her meal on the bedside table, slicing the leaf opened with the pocket knife she’d found in the glove compartment of a wrecked Ford F1 when she was eleven. One of few little trinkets she’s managed to keep hidden from Plutt grasping hands. 

After gently removing the hankies, she was glad his back was to her so that he couldn’t see her fiery blush at the moan he gave around a mouthful of white bread when she gently stroked the cool pulpy side over his skin. 

Swallowing before she asked, “Are you okay?” 

Flip hummed blissfully, “that feels good.” 

Rey’s eyes followed the glide of the leaf underneath her fingertips as she traversed the breadth of shoulders. She leant towards him and gently blew a cooling breath over the wet path left in its wake, prompting another murmur. 

Emboldened, she skimmed over his shoulder and up his neck when Flip’s hand closed around her wrist. Closing the distance between them, she wet her lips in anticipation. 

“I can.. take it from here Rey .” He said faltering slightly. 

“You can’t reach all the way around.” she said blowing against his skin again, liking the way this huge man shivered. 

“I’ll manage..” she cut off the rest of his protestations with a kiss. His lips were slightly chapped but still looked so soft and full, the first slide of her lips across his, lit her nerves up like the sparklers Marsha’s husband used to hand out on the Fourth of July. White hot illumination cracked over her skin and the almost forgotten tug of want tightening her stomach. 

Flip broke away from the kiss, pressing his forehead against hers and sighed. 

“You’re killing me Rey,” he lamented “Please Baby I’m trying so hard not to take advantage of you here..” 

Rey leaned into kiss him gently, “You’re not, I want to..” she murmured between kisses. 

She decided she liked the rasp of his beard, it tickled and scraped against her skin in a way that was very different from the smooth skin boy that had kissed her before but it wasn’t unpleasant. After all, she was kissing a man, Flip Zimmerman was no boy. 

Then he drew back murmuring something about first times being special. 

“You’re so young,” he sighed brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face. “you shouldn’t do something now.. you might end up regretting one day.” He told her pulling away from her. 

Resentment flared in the pit of her gut at the rejection, she didn’t need to be treated like an empty headed teenage girl. She’d never been allowed to have a childhood, let alone frivolous teenage years and this jackass thought he was going to treat her like some stupid kid? 

“Hey! I’m not some blushing virgin Flip.” She growled.

Flip’s face shifted from stunned to angry “Plutt.. did he do?” 

He’d been holding her hand the whole time but now his other hand wrapped around her upper arm so she was forced to face him fully. 

“No” she scoffed.

“Then who?” He demanded. 

Twisting in his light hold she hissed, “You don’t have the right to ask me that!”

“Did he hurt you?” Flip asked softer this time, letting her go as she got off the bed. 

“He didn’t hurt me like that..” resolutely looking at the floor, unwilling to look at him. 

“Like what then? tell me.. please?..” Flip didn’t sound angry, he sounded.. defeated. Rey met his gaze, hating the burn of tears and the wedge that threatened to her breathing or worse, to break in a sob. 

“Last year, David Strunk.. Davey. He started coming around to talk to me, saying he wanted to get to know me.” She paused in her tale long enough to wipe her nose on a tissue “He spent a long time ingratiating himself so I’d show him how to repair this junker car he owned. So I helped him fix it.. he filled my head with nonsense about driving away to find my family. He just wanted... I was so damn stupid..” Rey dropped her gaze to the floor, Flip’s warm hand gently cupped the entire side of her face, his thumb brushing a tear away. 

“He took advantage of you, your kindness, your willingness to see the good in people.. he was an asshole.” Flip murmured pulling her to his chest, Rey could feel his lips pressing against her hair. 

“I was the idiot” 

“You had hope, having hope isn’t foolish.” He said as his hand rubbed a soothing circles on her back “How the hell did you find the courage to trust me?” Flip murmured into her hair. 

She shrugged “You didn’t really give me much of choice remember? You carried me out of the building.” She said dryly dabbing at her eyes. 

“Listen to me Rey, you don’t owe me a goddamn thing. You got it?” He said pulling back so Rey could see his face. His hands moving from her back to encircle her upper arms.” 

“But if it wasn’t for you rescuing me, I might never have left”

His short black eyebrows rose at this statement. “You would’ve left, when you were ready.”

“You think?” Rey asked the question felt childish but she still wanted to hear his answer. 

“Yeah.. something would’ve happened, you’d have just left that place and never looked back.”

“I’m glad it was you, I’m glad you where that something.” She murmured as she wrapped her arms around his waist, making Flip hiss softly with pain. “I’m so sorry, sit back down I’ll put more aloe on your back.”

Flip obediently sank back onto the bed taking up his sandwich again and she took up her abandoned aloe leaf. She applied the cool pompace over his burns with a less sensual air not wanting to push him further but a question practically burned against her pursed lips. 

“Do you.. want me?” She asked hesitantly when she couldn’t contain it any longer. He was silent for a long moment and when he finally spoke his voice was rough. 

“I do.. but you deserve choices” Flip observed. “We’ll find you a job, a place to live.. maybe you could go to college if you wanted. I’m a cop Rey.. a detective.. I work undercover, sometimes for long stretches, it’s not always easy to keep a relationship going..”

“Relationship?” The fluttering in her stomach became more Mothra sized then the little butterflies she’d had previously. 

“Were you planning on just using me for my body?” He smirked. 

Her breath caught in her throat but she managed to scrape out a breezy “Maybe..”

He snorted softly “eat your sandwich Rey.”

  
  


## Fire and rain - James Taylor, Sweet Baby James

The helicopter was on its side. 

Poe was thrust back into concussiness by someone frantically tugging at his sleeve. His nostrils filled with the smell of burning plastic wiring and brackish water, Eddie’s hand was still gripping his sleeve but then his fingers loosened and fell away.

Poe’s vision was blurry, his head throbbed. Where the hell was he? Smoke was filling the cabin, he had to get out of here. 

“Eddie?” He coughed “Eddie come on!” he reached a hand out to shake his co pilot while the other clawed at the belt release but his hand met only water. The Huey was steadied filling with water. 

Senior Airman Edward Asty was trapped unmoving in his seat, pinned by crumpled fuselage as the plane sank into the water, he’d already drowned. 

“Eddie!” Poe shouted dropping out of his seat to fall on his friends body. He was desperate to free Eddie but the space was filling up too quickly. Poe roared with grief and frustration as he was forced from the cabin. “God damn it!” He screamed only to have the bayonet end of rifle pointed at him. 

Five Vietnamese soldiers, one a girl who looked barely older than fifteen, had their weapons trailed on him. 

“Take it easy guys” he said slowly raising his hands over his head, the soldier closest strode forward and slammed the butt of his gun against his ribs with a burst of angry Vietnamese. 

The second gesturing with rifle ordered him to stand, when he did Poe nearly dropped to his knees when the soldier drove the rifle butt into Poe’s kidneys. He felt the blade poked him in the back, urging him forward. 

Once outside, he was forced to kneel with his hands and feet bound with a gun pointed at his head while he watched them looted his chopper. He didn’t really feel anger towards them for that, seeing the happiness on the girl’s face when she pulled the C - rations out of the wreck, they were clearly starving. 

They didn’t seem to understand English but his smart mouth still got him in trouble. 

“So who talks f..” the rest of his quip was cut off when an end of a rifle crashes into the side of his face, the warmth liquid running down the side of his head lead him to think that the blow had split his eyebrow opened 

He was frog marched for days. With the rain and crossing creeks he was never dry, his legs became covered with leeches, the wounds they caused were soon infected. Nights were the worst, under the jungle’s canopy it was completely black but he could hear things moving in the undergrowth. 

One morning, he woke with the alien sensation of scales, the cool and muscular gliding of a wrist thick snake moving over his throat. Frozen in terror and bound in his bamboo cage Poe could only wait and watch as the creature slid out of sight. 

They moved him around, which he suspected was because of the proximity of US patrols, once they were so close he could smell the smoke from their cigarettes on the breeze as he was forced to the ground with his own pistol at his temple. 

Time was difficult to keep track of with the frequent moves between various makeshift camps and small outposts. The last place was the worst.

Until then none of his captors had been wearing a uniform, just the normal garments Vietnamese farmers wore but this guy was brass. From his upright bearing to his spit shined boots. He crouched next Poe’s cage “Get up” he said in heavily accented English. 

His cell was about five feet high and was only about two and a half foot squared which meant that he’d had to sleep sitting up. So when he stood it was stoop shouldered with tingling deadened legs, he didn’t speak. The beating he’d taken from the last time he’d mouthed off still made it painful to breathe. 

Poe was fairly sure his ribs were cracked on his right side and if the opportunity to escape presented itself, it would be beyond stupid to miss his chance because he’d wanted to be a wiseass.

He looked defiantly into the officer’s face, and what he saw chilled him to the bone. Poe had grown up in Miami and gone shark fishing with his dad and uncle’s. He saw that same lifelessness glassy blackness in this officer's eyes. 

“P. Dameron, Captain. United States Air Force. 614 00 2187.”

As he was trapped to the wooden table. That would be all he tell them.

“P. Dameron, Captain. United States Air Force. 614 00 2187.”

Rough, wet sackcloth clamped over his face by calloused hands. The water pouring over his face he tried to hold his breath but sharp blow to his aching side forced his breath out. 

And the water just kept pouring. 

  
  
  


He woke up in darkness with his hands bound in to his ankles and gagged. 

The he was laying on damp earth, feeling around him the realised the walls were made of dirt too. Was he in a hole? A tunnel? Not sure if he was alone in the fetid heat. Poe blinded, could only listen for the sounds for breathing, inhaling through his nose, trying not to make any sound maybe he could smell if someone was near him. 

There was the sudden screeching of metal and he was bathed in warmth and terrible bright light. 

“Hey man, we got you. It’s okay.” 

The light was too bright to see anything but that accent, A Mississippi delta drawl. 

“You’re gonna be alright now man, I’m Finn”

## You make me feel like dancing - Leo Sayer, Endless fight. 

“Okay so most disco has a four four beat, so it’s really easy to dance to”

Kaydel had to admit having a male roommate was different. She had walked into the bathroom this morning to discover Poe, freshly showered and swathed in only a low slung towel, paused in the action of brushing his teeth. 

“Morning roomie” he called as she backed out of the room stammering apologies. 

She didn’t know exactly why it had rattled her so much, after all she’d had to strip him out of his vomit covered clothes only a week ago but she had been in nursing mode then. She’d had a comfortable clinical detachment then that was completely blown to hell by the domesticity of the arrangement, spearmint toothpaste and a well toned set of abdominal muscles. 

In the afternoon they’d cleared a space in the living room pushing the armchairs and sofa up against the walls for the dance lesson, “the easiest dance is The Bump, which is put much just dancing..” she paused to blow away any fluff that had collected on the record player’s needle as Poe removed the record from its sleeve and passed it to her. 

“K C and the Sunshine Band? perfect, like I was saying you just groove around and then you just bump hips.” Kaydel said demonstrating by thrusting her hips sideways so that she gently collided with the side of his hip. 

“That’s it?” He asked. 

“That’s it, well for The Bump anyway, you can add moves to it like The Proud Mary,” she tumbled her hands over each other like a boxer using a speed bag. “The disco finger” she pointed to the ceiling then the floor in time with the music. 

“Okay.. what do you do with your feet?” Poe asked 

“Well Grapevine is the basic step” 

By following along Poe soon mastered The Hustle, the Nutbush and the Bus Stop. Laughing and out of breath by the end of the album, they collapsed onto the loveseat together. 

“So what are you going to wear?” She asked sitting up and turning towards him. 

“I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it” 

“Clothes maketh the man Poe! Come man, get with it!” Kaydel said jumping to her feet and holding out her hands to pull him to his feet. “You dress well, I bet you’ll have something that with do the job!” 

Poe did dress well, she’d contemplated stealing his brown leather jacket for herself and the tight white polo and tan bell bottoms he was wearing certainly looked good on him. 

She half dragging him down the hall to his bedroom, where he slumped on the bed propped up on one elbow and watched as she ransacked his closet. 

After some deliberation she’d narrowed her recommendations down to two outfits, a plum satin shirt with black bell bottoms or a white dress shirt with a wide collared and crisp wide legged grey slacks with a matching vest. 

“What are you going to wear?” He asked. 

“Oh! I’ll get it” she said dashing to her room to fetch the hot pink halter-necked dress.

He squinted while pulling an over the top pout pretending to critiquing her gown. 

“Shoes?”

“Silver peep toes” 

“Then I’m going to wear grey.” He said eyebrow cocked at a rakish angle. “We’ll slay them, is it too early to open the bar?” 

“Lord no! It’s five o'clock somewhere.” Kaydel told him in a molasses thick parody of her Mama’s Georgia accent. 

Poe bit his lip “that reminds me, your mother didn’t buy my Liberace impersonation. Her accent gets a whole lot thicker when she’s threatening someone.”

“Mama went full southern? I’m definitely going to need a drink.”

“Have you tried a Harvey Wallbanger?” Poe asked as they headed back into the kitchen. 

“I haven’t tried a Harvey but I’ve tried the wall, not bad but I ended up with a lot of weird bruises.” Kaydel quipped as she settled onto one of kitchen stools. 

Poe chuckled “Do we have Galliano?” He asked as he pulling a bottle of vodka from the freezer. 

“We do” Kaydel producing a bottle from the kitchen pantry with a triumphant air, Poe deftly mixed their cocktails even presenting them with a slice of orange and flourish while she spoke. 

“Mama must like you if she used her real accent,” Kaydel observed “she pretends she’s a sweet little magnolia blossom straight off her Daddy’s cotton plantation for my Daddy’s career but she didn’t come from money. Her parents were dirt poor.. too many kids and moonshine.” She said sighing and taking a long sip of the doctored orange juice. “That’s delicious!”

“I’ll try not to take the incredulous tone to heart. So how’d they meet?” 

“Who?” 

“You’re parents, you know what’s their big romantic story.” He asked draining a third of his drink. 

“Gosh, you know I don’t think I ever asked” 

He raised his eyebrows over the top of his glass. 

“Well how did your parents meet?” She deflected. 

“It was very romantic, my father left Cuba to enlist in the US Air Force. He had just signed up when he walked out of the enlistment office after signing up and he locked eyes with my mother in the street. She had to flee Guatemala after the latest dictator made it too dangerous to remain there. Anyway they fall madly in love in that very moment and wrote passionate letters to each other as my father fought in the Pacific. They married when he came home missing a chunk of his left ass cheek and they lived happily ever after.”

“Really?”

“Well she’d thrown the occasional saucepan at his head but yeah they were pretty happy.” He said

“Were?”

His whole body language shifted from relaxed to tense and fidgety. 

“Mom passed on a while ago” he said dismissively as he picked the vodka’s label as suddenly as a dark mood threatened to overtake him but he seemed to shrug it off “Listen Hot stuff, it’s New Year’s Eve I’m putting on another record it’s time to get into the party mood.” He said bracingly.

“Well if we’re getting into the party mood..” Kaydel produced a little pill bottle. “Open wide” she instructed and placed the pill on his tongue which he swallowed with the last of his drink. 

“What was that?”

“A ‘lude, it won’t hurt you..” she said washing hers down with her cocktail. 

“How did you get them.” He asked brows knitting together. 

“Relax Stud, I didn’t steal them from work I know a friendly doctor with very friendly prescription pad.” She demurred as she took the record from him. 

  
  


Lando had a good feeling about Disco. He’d followed that instinct and for the most part it had served him well at the poker table and in business, with only the occasional slightly shady nudge to put the odds in his favour. 

But Cloud City was something to be proud of, the best nightclub on the state. With an Air Force base, a naval base and steady stream of tourists, Honolulu was the perfect place for this new venture, the ocean between him and the unpleasantness on the mainland was just the frosting on the cake. 

With a soft knock Kaasha entered his office, still a knockout, she had wholeheartedly embraced her African roots, Lando thought it was just a fad but had to admitted his wife looked pretty damn amazing in the flowing green sarong dress with her long hair tied back into dozens of tiny braids and a turban. 

“Lando Baby it’s nearly midnight, why are hiding up here?” 

He closed the ledger he’d been perusing “I honestly didn’t realise it was that late,” he told her as her hand slid over his shoulder his own rested on her hip as he gave her bottom a friendly squeeze. 

“Come on, we’ll open some champagne.” She said as eased up from his chair with the aid of a cane. An unfortunate consequence of a misunderstanding in Vegas but he wore it with style. 

“I’m a lucky man.” He sighed holding her hand away from her body and giving admiring the way the dress clung to her figure. 

“And don’t you forget it.” She told him sternly pressing a finger against his chest but she kissed him softly just the same. 

Lando Calrissan looked over his personal fiefdom. The dance floor was jam packed with revellers, the bar staff were hurrying to keep the crowd’s thirst quenched and he exchanged a nod with his impassive head of security Boba. Satisfied, he followed Kaasha to their VIP box soon a bottle of ‘69 Dom Pérignon was quickly whisked up to them.

“How much did this cost me?” He rumbled. 

“Hush, you’re beginning to sound like an old man.” Hand she passed him a glass.

“Speak for yourself Baby Girl I’m never get old.”

“You better Mister,” she chided taping his bad knee. “There’s own so many times I’m willing to save your skin.” 

“That’s not how I remember it..”

“Ah hmm.” Somehow Kaasha managed to compress a massive amount of doubt into two syllables while she watched the dancers below. A blonde girl in a pink dress and dark haired man in a grey waistcoat where particularly good. 

“You want to dance?” 

Kaasha’s retort was cut short by the DJ’s announcement that it was time for the countdown. 

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one… Happy New Year!!!” Lando had had a net set up over the dance floor and as the clock struck midnight the balloons fell from the ceiling. 

“Happy 1976!” The DJ shouts into his microphone. 

“Happy New Year baby” Kaasha murmured leaning in for a kiss as Auld Lang Syne began to play. 

  
  
<https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0DcyevfZNABk8fca5Uml7K?si=ja1CavG1RaGjyXVxkriJ2w>   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ludes is a shorted version of Quaaludes, a barbiturate commonly abused at the time. Remember that scene in the Wolf of Wall St, Leonardo DiCaprio crawling time his ugly white car? He called them Lemmons but disco biscuits and soup, where other nicknames. 
> 
> It’s a system depressant and so is alcohol which also lowers your inhibitions. So you make bad decisions particularly when you mix the two together. 
> 
> Don’t do it, live happy productive lives. Forgive me the ted talk but I’m a mum.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry this is late but I had three migraines last week so this week I’ve been frantically trying to catch up with work while walking around in a brain fog. So writing this chapter was a struggle. 
> 
> Fingers crossed that I’ll have the next chapter ready on Thursday but it’s Christmas and 💩 tends to hit the fan around this time of year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s where I earn the explicit rating. Sexy times ahead.

##  When the levee breaks - Led Zeppelin, IV 

They wound their way through the Painted Desert stopping where they pleased, Rey managed to talk Flip into staying in Holbrook just because she wanted to spend the night in a kitschy motel where the cabins were shaped Wigwams. 

He blamed the sheer length of tanned thigh shown by the white mini dress with the colourful flowers embroidered around the neckline she had been wearing at the time. 

He ended up buying some silver and turquoise hair combs for her birthday in this tourist trap shop she’d dragged him into, because he thought they’d look nice in Rey’s chestnut hair, Flip would later pinpoint that as the moment he realised he was a complete sap for her. It wasn’t quite love yet but with each bright smile and small kindness she bestowed on him or someone else they encountered, it was getting closer. 

The trouble was he didn’t know if she felt the same, he’d been a cop for almost nine years now and he’d watched plenty of his coworker’s marriages implode and had a few of his own relationships go that way too. He’d have to disappear for weeks while he went undercover or be out all hours doing surveillance, and they’d get tired of worrying about him or wondering if he was working like he said he was, or if he was out tomcatting around. It took a lot of mutual trust to be with a cop, and not everyone had that kind of faith in them. 

And Flip knew he wasn’t a kid anymore and starting a family of his own was something he’d thought about. Rey was young, she’d want to explore her new found freedom and Flip didn’t want to end up with her resenting him ten years down the track. 

“That was a heavy sigh, is your back still hurting?” 

They had got into Albuquerque that afternoon and decided to go to the local drive in movie theatre. It was a double feature, a new kids movie called ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ and a Western called ‘Two mules for Sister Sara’ that he wanted to watch. 

“It’s not too bad, I was just thinking.. I’ve got to be back in Colorado Springs for work on Monday.” He said as he repositioned the cushion at his back. 

“If we drive to Colorado tomorrow, we’ll have all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday to find you somewhere to stay, you can stay with me for a few days but we find you your own place.” It was the intermission and lights were back on, people were getting out of their cars to socialise, get snacks or use the bathroom. 

“Okay” she mumbled chewing on the straw of her milkshake. “Where were you thinking?”

“There’s few boarding houses in town but maybe there’s some other girls around your age who need a roommate?” She nodded seemingly dejected with this answer. 

“Living with strangers?” She said her voice low. 

He sighed and pulled her to his side where her head fitted perfectly in hollow between his neck and shoulder, almost like it was made for her “Everyone is going to be a stranger for a while but you’ll make friends. Look at Maz and Chewie, you had them eating out of your hand in two minutes flat.”

Her arms wrapped around his middle in a side long hug, and Flip shifted trying to find a more comfortable position. “We’d probably be more comfortable in the back seat.” 

“Nice try.” Flip smirked as he stretched his legs out into the passenger side footwell, he was sticking with his ‘no fucking Rey’ plan even if his balls remained blue permanently. 

The local radio station seemed to be on the side of chastity too judging by their song selection, Loretta Lynn’s ‘One on the way’ was twanging out of the metal speaker perched in the car’s window and the one before that had been Tammy Wynette’s ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E’. 

“Do think their trying to tell us something with these songs?” Rey remarked in a tone as dry as dirt. 

He chuckled the movement of his chest jostled her around bringing up her scent, the flowery, apple of her shampoo and sundried cotton. That scent had been driving him nuts for days. 

“Is it working?” She asked as she draped her thigh over his. Flip could feel the press of Rey’s breasts against his side, her mouth on his pulse point “Not really.” He admitted breathlessly. 

Kissing was okay, he rationalised as she tilted her face up to his. They could make out that wouldn’t hurt anything Flip reasoned but he was so very wrong, when Rey made that little moan as she opened up her mouth for him, he realised he was fighting a losing battle. 

“Just on top of the…. clothes stuff okay? No funny business..” He panted between kisses as his hands skimmed over her hips to cup her denim clad ass.

“Isn’t that my line?” She quipped as her hand slid underneath his T-shirt. 

He rerouted her hand “Behave..” he growled playfully squeezing her ass a little harder then kissed the pout she gave at that. 

If only it wasn’t so hard to heed his own advice, his palms ached to feel the soft weight of her breasts, to make her nipples pucker against his lips, dip his fingers into the silky warm between her thighs. When Rey’s hand skimmed over his cock, palming his length through the denim and squeezed. Flip arched so hard he lifted them both off the seat. 

“You do that again.. I’ll put you in handcuffs..” he threatened shaking her gently, his voice rough and low “you hear me Rey?” She was flushed, her eyes wide but she nodded.

“You’re killing me here..” his voice still low but gentler now “I’m trying to be a good man but all I want to do is drag you into that backseat and lick your pussy until you’re so soaking wet for me, you’d take every inch of my cock over and over and thank me for it.. Wouldn’t you baby?” He could feel a tremble course though at that as she gave a nod.

“You’d taste so sweet too, like summer peach..” he continued pressing three fingers against the seam of her jeans, circling just over her clit. The little whine she gave was delicious “would you like that Rey?... Bet you know I can fuck you better then a dumbass that didn’t know how goddamn lucky he was..”

He brushed her hair away from her neck, winding it around his fist and pulling her head gently to the side “tell me baby..” he begged as he kissed a path from her collarbone to her ear “would you like that?” Lightly pinching her nipple through her T-shirt.

“Please.. Flip I want you” she sounded so pretty, so wrecked for him. He summoned the last threads of restraint and courage he had to tell her.

“I won’t do it baby, I’m not going to risk you being stuck with my kid and no choices, when we have you settled in Colorado we’ll get you on the pill. Then and only then I’ll give you want you want.” Tears welled in her beautiful eyes but he shook his head “I won’t take you on the backseat of a car like a teenager, it's gonna be in my bed, where you can be as loud as you want.”

Rey buried her face in his neck, her hot breath and damp steadily seeping into his collar made his heart clench “Please baby, it will be worth it I swear.” He whispered hoarsely pressing his lips to her shoulder.

Flip wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he’d held Rey when a girlish giggle broke the stupor he’d been in but he knew that Rey hadn’t laughed. He looked up to see two small girls peeking over the passenger side window at them. The Peeping Toms giggles turned to cackling as they disappeared, he could hear the rapid beats of their running footsteps as bolted back to their parent’s cars. 

On the screen, Shirley Maclaine was dressed as a nun and was drinking whiskey directly from the bottle as he and Rey straightened their disheveled hair and clothes. Flip thought he wouldn’t have minded a drink himself. 

“I think we missed most of the movie” Rey confessed dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, he couldn’t help noticing her lips were swollen from his kisses. 

Flip lifted his hips to fish his zippo lighter out of his pocket so he could light a cigarette, mainly just to give his hands and mouth something to do. 

“I know you’re right..” Rey started 

“But that doesn’t make it easier..” he first shifting in his seat trying to subtly ease the pressure of his erection against his jeans. 

They watched the rest of the movie mostly in silence, driving back to the motor inn Flip vowed to have a cold shower but decided to take a bath instead, he mostly took showers but tonight a good long soak felt like just the ticket. 

He waited until Rey had gone to bed before sinking into the cool water. Flip’s body was too long for the tub so he propped his feet up on the edge of the bath. 

He dozed lightly until the sound of the door opening jerked him back to full consciousness, Rey seemed to be taking a page out of Clint Eastwood’s playbook and was stepping into his bath water “I’m sure glad you’re not wearing spurs..” Flip teased as he sat up dropping his washcloth over his crotch.

The water spilled over the lip of the tub as Rey sank between his knees “we can just do stuff that won’t get me pregnant,” she insisted the cotton of her pyjamas was quickly becoming sheer revealing the rosy points of her breasts. “It’s not just you know.. you’re driving me crazy, the way you look at me.” She admitted breathlessly winding her arms around his neck. “I want to see you.. all of you..” one hand smoothed over his chest traveling downwards getting perilously close to his washcloth, he was desperately thinking of a good reason she couldn’t suck his dick but all he could think was, Hell yes!

When she took his cock in hand, pumping it with steady, madding slow strokes and all reasoning left him. 

“Get out of the tub.” He croaked. “We can’t do this in a bathtub.”

He clambered after her on slightly shaky legs, she sank to her knees in front of him, Flip gripped the edge of the bathroom counter for support mutely offered her a towel for her knees. 

Rey was looking at his dick like she was deciding what to do first, she finally… finally began by licking the underside of his head, adding little kittenish licks as she grew bolder. Flip’s knuckles were bone white again the yellow of the cabinet, he wondered if he’d end up breaking as Rey took him into her mouth. With one hand she gripped the root of his cock and worked him, the other gripping his ass, he couldn’t hold out for long. “Rey.. you don’t have to..” he started but even a gently push away did not deter her. He came with her name on his lips, spilling into her throat. 

Could you die from a blow job? because he had to have come close. His ears rang with the force of it, fissions of pleasure had him shivering and breathing like a wounded animal. He pulled Rey to her feet, cupping her jaw and dusting her face with dozens of butterfly light kisses before kissing her mouth coaxing open the tight seam of her lips to let her tongue play with his. “Thank you..” he sighed touch her forehead to his,

gratefully and sated. 

“You’re very welcome.” She said kissing him back. 

“You better get you out of those wet clothes, I’d hate for you to catch you death.” He told in a resigned tone. 

“But how will I stay warm?” Rey said eyes innocent and wide. 

Flip seized Rey behind the thighs and lifted her up to wrap her legs around his hips “I’ll figure something out..” 

##  Spanish Harlem - Aretha Franklin, The very best of Aretha Franklin. 

After Poe was discharged from the hospital, he and Finn became the best of friends. Finn had to admit that being Poe’s friend was flattering, he was well known but pretty soon Finn was finding himself recognised, he was no longer a just another sailor. He was the guy who saved Poe Dameron. 

He made his way one morning to Paige and Rose’s place he’d been gone for awhile and how the girls were doing always played on his mind. 

He saw Rose out the front of the ramshackle house they shared with another family. She was focused on the small engine she’d pulling apart, a streak of black grease was unnoticed on her cheek and his heart warmed at the sight of her. 

“Hey Rose” 

“Finn!” 

She bounced to her feet with a happy grin, He was slightly surprised by his urge to hug her but he knew that he shouldn’t, Vietnamese people didn’t hug hello unless they were family. 

She looked thinner the shadows under her brown eyes looked deeper. “Where’s Paige? She okay?” He asked. 

“Her husband came home for a visit.” Rose confessed looking awkward.

“He went awol?” He asked. 

“What does awall mean?” 

“He left the army without asking if he could go..” he explained. 

“No” she said amused “if you told a Vietnamese man he can’t visit his mother when he wants, there wouldn’t be an army.” She scoffed. 

“It’s different for us,” he explained, “we have to go where we’re told to go.”

“Why did you join the army then?”

“I joined the Navy, not the Army,” he chided her “I didn’t want to stay in Louisiana. There wasn’t a future for me there. Did you want to take a walk?” 

“Okay,”

They put away Rose’s tools and the engine and talked down the road towards a river that ran along the border of the town. “Why didn’t you have a future Finn? I thought Americans all are happy.”

“Not all of us.” He said pointing at his face. She nodded sympathetically. 

“Some joe’s call me names like g.k, they think we’re all bar girls.” 

“I’m sorry Rose, I’m so sorry Americans spoke to you like that..”

She shrugged, angling her conical hat to see him better. 

“Bad people are everywhere, so are good ones” There was a low rumble of thunder, it was the height of the monsoon season and the sky was changing to an ominous blue grey, it looked like the break in the weather they’d been enjoying would soon be over.

She looked into the depths of the brown hued water “This river used to have many lotuses, very beautiful, people dig them up to eat the roots.” 

Finn wanted to comfort her but he didn’t know what to say, maybe he wasn’t able to hug her but he could just..

He was relieved when she allowed him brush his fingers against hers finally taking her small work roughened hand in his, he gave it a squeeze and the continued hand in hand along the river, too shy to look at each other and too nervous to speak for a long time. 

Ahead a crowd was gathered on the bank of the creek, some were pointing down into the water. 

“Oh no” Rose broke into a sprint towards the group Finn broke into a run after her.

“Rose wait! Rose!” he yelped.

When he caught up she was talking rapid fire Vietnamese to an old man with stooped shoulders. The grandfatherly man was shaking his head and holding his hands up, gesturing wildly and pointing towards the water.

Finn followed the movement to see the long black hair and bared white skin, a naked woman was laying face down in the brackish water. 

“Rose, you shouldn’t have to see this..” Finn took Rose by the arm he started looking around the street for Americans “we should get out of here..” he pleaded. Finn ended up half carrying her down the road as the body was dragged out of the water.

“Did you know her? Was that.. was it Paige?” He asked terrified of the answer. Rose was pale, allowing him to lead her stumbling up the dirt road. 

“I don’t know her but I think I’ve seen her in the bars… I think she was a..” Rose flushed. 

“Okay,” he said understanding her meaning. “She was bitten. Someone bit her.” Finn mumbled, he’d seen the strange half moon marks that covered her breasts and the blue black ring around her neck. 

“I think she was strangled..” the street was more crowded here they were in the bar area, more Americans were in earshot so Finn dropped his voice lower speaking into Rose’s ear. “Rose, that girl was murdered.”

“She wasn’t the first one.” Rose said quietly her face close to his. 

“How many?”

“Three other girls, all bar girls.” 

Finn grew up in an orphanage, in reality it was more like a workhouse. He and the other boys had been rented out as domestic help, chimney sweeping, yard work and cleaning stables. 

At night the older boys had told tall tales, old Cajun ghost stories of the Loup Garou, the werewolves of the bayous and true stories of bloodthirsty murders, the Axeman of New Orleans and the Texarkana phantom. He shivered, despite the muggy afternoon. Finn knew to fear people more than goblins and ghouls but something about murder in the middle of so much violence and death felt even more evil. This poor girl had died for sport and it made Finn sick to his stomach. 

“Rose, you and Paige gotta be careful, don’t go out at night for anything..” but Rose just gaped at him.

“You think we are stupid? We never go out at night! We are too scared.” She snapped at him pulling herself free form the light hold he had on her upper arms. 

He followed her up the street “Rose I didn’t mean it that way, I’m afraid for you.. I don’t want something bad to happen to you or Paige, do you think Paige’s husband can stay with you both, just until they catch the killer?”

Rose squinted at Finn, incredulous. “Finn, no one care if Vietnamese girls die, Americans blame Vietnamese and Vietnamese blame Americans, no one does anything!” 

“I do and I’m gonna find someone who will help.”

Finn told her.

##  Blue Sky - The Allman brothers, Eat a peach.

Living with Kaydel was surprisingly ease even fun, she had a great sense of humour, a military life had made her a very tidy person and since the nature of both their jobs meant they tended to keep odd hours, she never needed to be reminded to keep the noise down when he was sleeping. 

Poe hoped he was a considerate housemate. He didn’t expect her to get off a shift and do his laundry, he would wash her uniforms if he didn’t have enough of his white shirts for a load. Though for the sake of harmony he didn’t wash her underwear, he resolutely steered clear of those little delicate scraps of lace and any associated bad thoughts they might provoke. 

They took it in turns to cook meals and clean the bathroom, they like the same tv shows. He’d brought home a guy he’d met at the club and she hadn’t batted an eyelash. In short, Kaydel was awesome chick but he was sticking with casual sex and flying from now on. 

He ran a loving hand over the belly of the Cessna 404 Titan he was flying to today, sure civilian piloting didn’t have the same rush as the combat flight but if he got to fly he could deal with it. 

That feeling of gathering speed and wondrous sensation of the aircraft lifting from the ground, was the same. If he had that he could figure out everything else. 

So in all he was mostly okay, his Air Force career may have ended but on the plus side he wasn’t going to end up facing an undesirable discharge for his sex life. Hawaii was so beautiful and he had a nice place to live. Granted Poe was alone in life, his wife had left him for another man but marriages broke up all the time, nothing to be ashamed of…

With the flight log ended and the preflight checks complete he greeted the group of tourists he was flying over the Big Island to see Kilauea. It was going to be great.

He smiled widely and the slightly sunburn family in front of him. “Aloha! E Komo Mai! that means hello and welcome in Hawaiian, I’m Captain Dameron I’ll be your pilot today on this Lani Airlines flight to the island of Hawaii…” 

The florid father thrust his suitcase into Poe’s chest and declared “Okay Pal, just fly the plane and don’t get us killed.”

His nervous looking wife looking at the plane “I’m sorry he’s sunburnt and it’s making him cranky, is this the plane..it’s very small” 

The wife was going to throw up he could recognise the signs by now. He could handle this, it was fine as long as he could fly. He would be fine. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ll Flip tried to hold out there , a gold star sticker for trying big guy. Rose and Finn are too sweet for words even with a homicide in the background and denial isn’t just a river in Egypt for Poe. 
> 
> What am I going to do with these knuckleheads.... lots of stuff Mwhahahaha (that’s how I write my evil laugh, fight me) 
> 
> Minor historical points, it’s true Vietnamese soldiers were free to leave at anytime, if they wanted to visit their families they could. 
> 
> Two mules for Sister Sara, Clint Eastwood’s character Hogan climbs into Shirley MacLaine characters bath fully clothed in dirty cowboy wear and she gripes about him still wearing his hat. 
> 
> Personally I thought the spurs where the more pressing issues but far be from me to kink shame people. 💋 Birdy


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers! Only a year between updates! Forgive me, 2020 hit me pretty hard. 
> 
> So many other things went to hell this year I won’t bore you with the story because that not the one you’re here for. I’m back and god willing I am going to post more frequently thank you to Alemon73 and Jaso for their kind comments that finally got me off my ass. 💐🙏🏼☺️

##  Do it again - Steely Dan, Can’t buy a thrill. 

A shard of light was coming through a gap in the curtains, Rey could feel the warmth of it on her leg. She was curled, limbs heavy and cool in the small portion of the bed that Flip wasn’t taking up. She strongly suspected that he wasn’t sleeping with anyone else, at least not regularly because he slept in the centre of the bed with his legs and arms stuck out like a starfish. 

He looked almost boyish in sleep she decided, the underlying tension coiled in his face and shoulders had been smoothed away. Settled against the warmth of his side with air conditioning muffling the sounds of cars passing by on the highway, the only noises in the room were tiny metallic ‘clink’ of the bedside radio clock’s display of the passing minutes and Flip’s steady breathing and soon Rey drifted back to sleep. 

She must’ve been out for a while because the sun had risen higher when she was woken by gentle fingers trailing over her bare thigh coming to rest on her backside. 

“Did I ever tell you how magnificent your ass is?” Flip sighed as he tugged the sheet down to her to reveal her derrière with a reverent sigh. 

Rey hid her smile in her pillow, “No.. but I have caught you staring at it, more than a few times actually.” 

Flip tilted his head to the side, flicking his mussed hair out of his eyes. “I wasn’t starting, I was admiring.” He corrected as he ran a soothing hand over her bottom. 

Rey gave an unladylike snort then yelped at his playfully swat. 

“Owww” She grumbled, rubbing her lightly stinging backside as she climbed out of the bed only to be seized by the hips and dragged back, pinning her down with one hand on her abdomen. 

“Where do you think you're going?” He said before wrestling her leg over his shoulder, his hooded eyes were fixed below. “Damn Rey.. Even your pussy’s pretty” she sighed. 

Not waiting for her reply, he dragged his tongue through her folds to circle her clit with mysterious wondrous patterns. Flip’s hand slid up her body to cup her breast, his thumb echoing his tongue’s movements. Rey’s hand twisted the sheets while the other roamed restlessly over his arm to tangle in his hair. 

“You okay?” He asked, punctuating the remark by blowing on her sensitive slit sending delicious little ripples through her core. “Is it the beard?” 

At first she’d worried his beard would scrape her raw when he’d knelt between her thighs but she had found it softer than she expected, leaving her inner thighs pleasantly tingling in the wake of his bristles, Rey shook her head.

“You need something else?” He asked 

Rey wasn’t sure, Flip’s ministrations had her breathlessly but there was an deeper ache that the tug and sliding of his lips and tongue wasn’t quite satisfying. His dark eyes narrowed, speculation gleaming in their mahogany depths. 

“Talk to me baby? What do you need?” He whispered in a low gravelly tone. “Do you need this?” And a thick finger coaxed her folds apart and dipped inside. 

She barely recognised the whine that she made, pressing her face in the pillow to stifle the needy moans that threaten to break free. 

“You like that? I’ll fill you up better” he promised, voice hoarse as he picked up his speed and stroked her walls while he lapped her clit. Her heart pounded in her ears as he added another and with each pass of his crooked fingers had her climbing to some heaven but Rey knew she needed more. Inhibitions cast aside she guided the hand that gripped her hip to her breast, Flip rubbed his thumb over her nipple and the circuit was complete. Pulses of sensation had her back bowed, twisting desperately away from his magical mouth for fear he’d drive her mad but still she wanting him closer. 

They lay there for a long time as they both caught their breath, Flip’s arms encircled her waist as he lay his head on her breast, his body wedged behind her thighs pinning her open. 

“Would you like to have dinner with me?” He asked with an odd hint of shyness considering what he had just been doing to her.

Rey squinted down at him. “Flip, we’ve eaten every meal together since we met..”

“No.. I meant like a real date, we get dressed up and go to a restaurant with tablecloths and no French fries on the menu, do you like Italian food?” He asked this time more confidently.

“I suppose spaghettios don’t count, right?”

He looked pained. “Definitely not.”

Burying her pink face in her hands Rey sighed at the ridiculousness of it all. “Yes Flip I’d really like to go on a real date with you.” 

“Yeah? Far out” he sighed. 

He dropped his face back to her chest,

Rey bit back a sigh, not knowing how to brooch the next subject but still curious. How do you ask a boy.. a man she corrected herself about that..

“What is it?” He asked, poking her in the side. “I can practically hear the gears turning in your head.”

“It’s embarrassing..” she hedged. 

“If you need to go use the bathroom, it’s fine.” He laughed softly

“No it’s not that..”

“What is it?” He said concern maybe even fear tinting his voice. 

Rey presses her heated face to his chest “its okay, just forget I said anything..”

“Rey..” he said this time the concern was more apparent and her gut clenched as he sat up. 

“It’s just you.. your uhh..” Amidst her fumbling reply, Rey glanced down and Flip caught the motion also looking down. “It looks different,” she confessed.

“Ohhh that, I’m circumcised, I’m Jewish Rey.”

She sat up and gathered the sheet around her and admitted to him “I don’t think I’ve ever even met anyone that was Jewish. I mean.. what’s it like?”

He ran his hand through his hair, “I’m probably not the best guy to ask, I don’t really know either. I wasn’t raised Jewish,.. I’ve never even been inside a synagogue.” He explained. 

“What’s a synagogue?”

“it’s a temple of worship, a kind of Jewish church.”

“So why do you say you’re a Jewish then? I mean I know it’s a religion. I don’t understand if you’ve never been inside a synagogue, I mean I’ve never been to a Baptist church..” 

He chuffed a little half laugh “No no.. it’s more complicated than that.. generally speaking if your mother is Jewish then you are too, my maternal grandmother was Jewish. It goes through the maternal line.” 

“I’m still not really getting it.” She admitted.

“It’s okay, I’m not really explaining it that well.” He said as he lit a cigarette, she noticed he tended to smoke when he was anxious and she moved quickly to soothe him, wrapping herself around him. As he knocked the ash off his smoke, he cleared his throat and asked. “Does it bother you?”, 

“No, why would it?” She said curiously. 

“No reason.. Actually” Flip said as he kissed her temple. He got out of bed and crossed the motel room to rummage through his suitcase. He returned with a little blue velvet jewellery bag, Flip up ended it and a silver pendant on a thin chain fell into his palm. 

“I think it was my grandmother’s.” He explained, Rey regarded the beautifully crafted pendant, a six pointed star enclosed in a circle with some strange writing on it, she picked it up to examine it closer and a fission tingled through her fingers. 

“Do you know what it says?” She asked but Flip shook his head. She wasn’t sure why but she had a strange feeling..

“I think you should wear it,” she told him earnestly, Flip took the necklace back and inspected it for a moment before putting it on. The chain was long enough for the pendant to lay near his heart, Rey wound her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his only to jump apart when a heavy fist pounded on the door. 

“Housekeeping!” A woman bellowed and Rey heard keys jangling. 

“One second!” Flip yelled back before hissing “bathroom” to Rey. Not wishing to be caught sitting nude in an equally naked man lap, Rey sprinted to the bathroom. 

“I said one second!” Flip shouted again as she closed the bathroom door. After a speedy shower she re-emerged to find Flip hurriedly packing their things. “The owner is threatening to charge us for another day if we aren’t gone in ten minutes.”

“Wow, that seems sort of strict,” Rey exclaimed.

He cleared his throat again “there were some noise complaints..”

##  We can work it out - Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed and Delivered. 

Poe Dameron didn't like her, Rose was certain of it. 

Maybe he didn’t like Vietnamese or he was embarrassed by her shabby clothes which had gotten soaked and muddied as Finn had dragged her from bar to bar. 

Between the thunderstorm and the music blasting from the nightclubs, any conversation had been virtually impossible as they made their way through the entertainment district. 

Finn had stopped to talk to other soldiers, some with voices like his, all rounded sounds and slower paced, other men chattered like birds too quick for her to follow. 

Sometimes he would clasp hands and bump shoulders with men who had skin like his, while the women perched on bar stools would whisper behind their hands and giggle at Rose’s clothing. She ignored their childishness as Finn seemed to find the person he was looking for.

Poe had been lounging in a corner booth and stumbled to his feet when he saw Finn. 

“Buddy it’s so good to see you!” He slurred as he pulled Finn into a lingering hug then dragged him down to sit beside him. 

“Poe, Man I need your help..” Finn said, Poe’s dreamy expression hardened as his eye fell on her. 

“Is she pregnant?” Poe mumbled.

Flushing, Rose hissed through bared teeth “No I am not pregnant”!” 

“You speak English.” He gawped. 

“And French, My parents owned a silk export company before the war, they did business with Americans and Europeans.” She said stiffly. Poe cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

“So how did you two meant?” He was trying to be nonchalant but the alcohol had eroded away his ability to be subtle. 

She could sense his mistrust of her, his eyes lingering on her face. Rose could practically see the wheels turning in his head as Finn briefly recounted the tale. 

“But that’s why I need to talk to you, have you heard any talk about girls going missing or murdered?”

Poe took a long drag on his hand rolled cigarette by the smell it wasn’t tobacco, he held the smoke in as he offered it to Finn who took a quick hit and gave it back. 

“Working girls?” Poe’s eyes darted briefly to Rose. 

“The only thing Rose works on is small engines Poe, Look... she’s got a sister and chicks are turning up dead in Dogpatch.” He dropped his voice lower so as not to be overheard “Weird shit Poe, I saw them dragging a girl out of the canal.. she had bite marks all over..” he motioned to his chest. 

“I haven’t heard anything but give me a day or two I’ll let you know.”

Finn walked her home after Poe had gone off to speak to someone who might know more about the murders. 

The storm had settled into a gentle rain as they both dove under the improvised awning at the front of the shack that she and Paige now called home. They both were slightly breathless from their dash through the muddy streets, “I’ve got to get back to the barracks..” Finn admitted but he shifted his body closer to her

“You don’t want a wall.” She said softly, her eyes dipped down to his lips.

“ _ Hả? có phải bạn không”  _

_ “vâng đó là tôi… _ I better go _ ”  _ she shouted back and slipped inside the door. 

“Stay safe, Rose”

Once she was inside he heard his footsteps squelching in the mud then they were lost in the sounds of the rain. Duoc, her brother in law came out of the screened off portion that served as his and Poung’s bedroom. 

“Who was that little sister?” he asked 

“Just Vien..” she told him, washing her feet in a bowl Phoung had left by the door and hoping he would be satisfied by her lie. 

“Vien Who?”

“Tran Nguyen” she lied smoothly giving him an innocent smile. 

“I don’t think I know him,” Douc said, eyeing her with amusement. “I might want to meet him to see he is good enough for my sister.”

“Vien is a little boy from down the street, did you have any luck finding a spark plug for that scooter engine?” Phoung asked as she tugged her collar back into place, Rose inwardly blessed her for changing the subject. 

“None at all, maybe I will have better luck tomorrow..” she told her sister and brother in law. 

#  Sister golden hair - America, Hearts. 

“More suction there Connix.” 

“Yes Doctor.” Kaydel murmured as she adjusted the suction tube. 

Whenever anyone suggested that young women only pursued careers in nursing in an effort to marry a doctor, Dr Ransolm Castefo MD was probably the kind of doctor they were thinking of. He was in his mid thirties, tall and lean with a full head of curling reddish gold hair and blue eyes coupled with high sharp cheekbones and an aristocratic air.

He was also an excellent example of why few nurses married doctors.

“Get that tube out of the way.” He snapped. “I can’t see the spleen.”

Kaydel brushed off his petulance, he’d been known to send younger nurses hurrying out of the room in tears but she didn’t intend to be one of them. In some ways his egotism was preferable to other doctor’s skirt chasing. 

Mālama Veterans Hospital was a white concrete block three story monolith sitting amid lush green lawns dotted with tall palms and plumeria trees, it was easily the prettiest hospital she worked at, definitely an improvement on the one in Danang but most things were better without gunfire. 

She carefully moved over a section of the large intestine, as the blood welled she caught a glimpse of a straight edge, something in the lowest lob of the liver that didn’t look quite right. Kaydel waited for Casterfo to notice it but his attention was firmly fixated on the small tear he was suturing in the bowel. 

This was one of the most difficult situations a surgical nurse faced, how to tell a vainglorious doctor he’d missed something without telegraphing it to the entire room, as he finished the last stitch Casterfo looked up briefly, blue eyes catching on brown and he followed her glance to the sliver of shrapnel lodged between the folds. 

He glanced at her again but Kaydel cast her gaze downward to her work and he set about repairing the damage. 

“Kefbir? take over on suction.. Connix I need you to elevate this section.” He said coolly. 

When he was finished he scrubbed and swept out without a backwards glance. 

Jannah removed her mask in the scrub room “He could’ve thanked you.” She said softly when they were alone. 

Kaydel stretched her back “How many times has a doctor thanked you for reminding them they’re not God?”

She chuckled wryly and grinned as she shed her outer gown and bundled it into a laundry hamper. 

“Did you see Tallie got the Dorothy Hamill cut?” Kaydel asked in an effort to change subjects.

“No way, how does she look?” 

Kaydel waved a hand and made a noncommittal noise. “Not great but not awful, it’s Tallie she’d look good in a potato sack.”

“Did you do anything for Valentines?” Jannah asked. 

“Oh yeah, it was so much fun, we went to see this movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show!” Kaydel said excitedly “it was this crazy musical, it’s pretty racy we had to go at eleven!” 

“With Poe?” She asked.

“Yeah”

“What is the deal with you two?”

“We’re roommates.” Kaydel said, plucking at the ties of her own gown.

“That you go to late late screenings of dirty movies with…” as they both scrubbed their hands. 

“We’re just friends and it wasn’t pornographic or anything!” She whispered eyes darting around checking to see if they were overheard. 

Jannah arched an sleek eyebrow “that you spend Valentine’s Day with.”

“We were both at a loose end, we went to the movies, end of story.” Kaydel said, shrugging as they left the scrub room. 

“If you say so…” Jannah told her. “So you wouldn’t care if Bazine was asking about him.”

Kaydel’s mouth went a little dry as she forced her lips to form the words “it would have nothing to do with me”

“But you said he’s considerate, fun and he’s very good looking.”

“He is but I am pretty sure he’s still getting over his ex.” Kaydel said as they rounded the corner and walked into Post op where all conversation stopped by the presence of Matron Holdo. 

“Connix and Kefbir..” she said coolly those sharp cornflower blue eyes skimming over their faces. “I need obs on Captain Gregor and the patient in bed five, he still hasn’t been identified so let's keep him alive long enough to hear it from him shall we?” She added dryly. “Get to it.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, just letting you know I changed Finn’s time line slightly it’s now 1970, while I’m not going to say this is a historical accurate work but I’m trying to keep as close as possible to the events that I reference.


End file.
